Since Jan 2014, and for years leading to this day, Her Honor Setting The Bar began its work of litigation, legal advocacy, and community mobilization, campaigning, raising awareness about the cause and its implications. Congratulations to Egyptian society at large, to Egyptian women in particular, and to female law graduates most specifically.
It took 12 years of relentless effort by Her Honor Setting The Bar—with over 23 lawsuits filed by Her Honor Setting The Bar on behalf of other female graduates from different Egyptian cities—to witness the Constitution and the law applied and to end one form of discrimination in the Egyptian society. This was preceded by attempts since the 1940s of the last century (1949) to demand the right of Egyptian women to assume judicial positions. These efforts contributed to breaking down the formidable wall of discrimination that had blatantly disregarded international treaties, the Constitution, and the law; overthrown the principle of the rule of law, legality; and prevailed societal considerations, personal preferences and interests, considerations of suitability, and discretionary power without any legitimate basis, trampling on the rule of law and citizenship. But in the end, truth prevails.
By Presidential Decree No. 446 of 2025, 157 women were appointed to the Public Prosecution out of a total of 555 assistant prosecutors from the 2021 cohort— 28%. It is worth noting that the first three names on the list (based on academic evaluation, merit, and class/cohort ranking, not alphabetical order) are female graduates. Furthermore, by Presidential Decree No. 447 of 2025, 46 women were appointed as junior judges in the State Council out of a total of 207, or only 22%. It is worth noting that the first name on the list is that of a female graduate (based on academic evaluation, merit, and class/cohort ranking, not alphabetical order).
This brings the total number of female judges to date to 183 in the State Council and 128 in the ordinary judiciary (a total of 311 sitting female judges), along with 168 female public prosecutors (standing judiciary), making a total of 479 women out of approximately 22,000 judges, according to the latest statements in 2021—a proportion of just 2.1% to date.
For the first time in history, Egyptian women will assume judicial roles and ascend the bench through the natural path of appointment, not the exceptional/abnormal/cesarean path—being transferred from the Administrative Prosecution or the State Litigation Authority—which entrenched other forms of discrimination more than it resolved. Even after this decision, the percentage of female judges in Egyptian courts remains at 2%, a token figure rather than a true representation of women on the judicial bench. This explains Egypt's continued lag in international annual reports, including the Global Gender Gap Report, Women, Business and Law Report, and others. Despite unprecedented steps, these victories remain ineffective on a macro level, unorchestrated, and it is still difficult to measure the impact of Egyptian female judges on society or the judiciary, because their percentage is negligible/more of an image than an actual appointment.
Achieving the Women's Empowerment Strategy issued by the National Council for Women in 2017, which aims for women to hold 25% of judicial positions by 2030, remains a distant goal if these minimal rates/percentages continue. This reveals that strategies are developed in isolation from reality, without mechanisms or steps to ensure their implementation. Such strategies remain ink on paper rather than actionable plans worked on and evaluated annually for progress.
Disclosure of the reasons for appointment/exclusion is still required, in accordance with previous presidential decrees, and monitoring the roles of female judges and their empowerment remains necessary, among other issues to be addressed subsequently.
As great as the joy is for this victory for the Constitution and the law after decades of prolonged discrimination, so too are the hopes pinned on objective appointment and equal opportunities within the judicial institution. The road is still long; this is only the beginning.
No right is ever lost since someone strives to claim it, and no nation is lost that holds its constitution and the rights of its citizens in high regard.
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Omnia Gadalla
Founder of " المنصة حقها Her Honor Setting The Bar" Initiative