Many people do not know that women’s struggle began in ancient times in the ancient Egyptians, and they were the first to know women’s rights and equality between them and men. The Egyptian woman had a high position in the ancient Egyptian society as the only partner of the man in his religious and worldly life according to the theory of creation and cosmogony found in the pharaonic religious principles, in terms of full legal equality and the man’s association with the woman for the first time by the sacred bond through eternal marriage contracts. This position was surprisingly modern compared to the position occupied by women in most contemporary societies at the time and even in previous eras. “Divorce among the ancients”.
The ancient Egyptian civilization developed legislation and laws regulating the rights and duties of women not only in marriage but also included the case of separation and divorce, the consequent economic rights for women, or appropriate financial compensation. To reduce divorce and the consequences of the breakdown of the family, he imposed many conditions for the divorce process. Dr Nashaat Al-Zuhri says in his discussion of divorce in ancient Egypt, “The husband in ancient Egypt was not satisfied with verbally divorcing his wife by saying, ‘She has deserted you as a wife. The witnesses would sign the divorce document as he signed it, but they were in the divorce document 4 witnesses. In comparison, in the marriage contract, they were 16 witnesses. The divorce formula was as follows: “I left you as my wife, and I am leaving you, and I have no demand at all, as I inform you that it is permissible You can take another husband for yourself whenever you want.” To guarantee women’s rights in divorce, the marriage contracts provided appropriate material compensation for the woman. In one of the papyri preserved in the British Museum, a marriage contract dates to 172 BC between the priest Pagosh and his wife, Teti Amhotep. The husband pledges to pay a large compensation within 30 days In the event of a divorce. Al-Zuhri adds that the wife was entitled to compensation of money upon her divorce in addition to the dowry. In the Pharaonic era, compensation began with double the value of the dowry. In the Ptolemaic era, it reached five times and reached ten times the maximum, and this great compensation was a method to make divorce difficult. The British newspaper “Daily Mail” reported that the Department of Oriental Studies at the University of Chicago revealed a 2,500-year-old papyrus, written in demotic, that stipulates that a woman will receive compensation in the event of a failed marriage, as in the event of separation, she will receive 30 pieces of silver and 36 shawls of grain every year for the rest of her life. This ensures that all of their needs are met.
Divorce in Ancient Egypt
January 26, 2022
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