It is a crucial moment in history, when more than 1,400 years of religious beliefs are being called into question. Following a fatwa from Al-Azhar scholars and a nod from the Zagazig family court, Amal Soliman, 32, is jostling her way into the world of the ma’azunia. Currently awaiting the Ministry of Justice’s approval of her appointment, Soliman is paving the way for women to pursue the conventionally male-only profession of documenting Islamic marriages and divorce.

It is a path littered with obstacles, not the least of which is a public perception that it is forbidden in Islam for a woman to be involved in the process of sanctifying and documenting family status. Indeed, the image of a stern-looking man wearing a red Azhari cap and a wool quftan has represented the maazun since the government formally established the profession in the early 1900s.

To add to the challenge, Soliman is not applying for a maazun post in a major city such as Cairo or Alexandria, where women are visibly active in society, but in the village of Qinayat, two hours east of the capital, where she lives with her husband and three children. Her husband’s uncle had been one of Qinayat’s maazuns, and when he passed away, the post was vacant. While discussing the requirements of the position with her husband, Soliman, who had been seeking employment for about a year, realized that a maazun could be any individual — not just a man — who had studied Shariah (Islamic law). She had done so as part of the curriculum of her law degree from Zagazig University.

Her first step took place not in the courthouse but in her own home: Soliman asked her husband for his approval, as she considered him to be her legal guardian. With his blessing, she then went to the family court in Zagazig to apply for the maazun position.

“I expected to be mocked,” Soliman admits, “and that is exactly what happened.” When she attempted to submit her application to the court in October of 2007, the officials refused to process it, insisting that it was forbidden for a woman to hold such a position.

Undaunted, Soliman sought confirmation from religious officials.

“This job falls under the Ministry of Justice, where [the maazun] functions like any other employee of the Ministry of Justice and documents marriages,” says Sheikh Abdul Hamid Elatrash, the secretary general of Al-Azhar’s Islamic Research Academy, which since 1961 has been the government body in charge of issuing fatwas and clarifying points of Islamic law. He says that the reason the job has been male-dominated for so long is due to social and cultural norms.

A number of Islamic scholars across the country have made public statements affirming that there are no religious prohibitions against women being maazuns. “It was only when the religious officials showed up on television to support this endeavor that things became clearer to me,” she says, listing Sheikh Mahmud Ashur, a former senior official at Al-Azhar, as one of her supporters.

Backed by this support and the fatwa issued by Al-Azhar on February 11, Soliman returned to the family court ready to fight for the credibility of her case.

Soliman notes that there are benefits to having a female maazun. For instance, as a woman, she is in a better position to verify whether the bride truly wants to marry or is being forced. She claims this is a situation that happens often in small villages, where the maazun receives a statement of the bride’s consent through her male guardian (usually her father or brother). According to Islamic teachings, if the bride is forced into the nuptials, the marriage is invalid. “As a female I have the opportunity to meet the bride and ask her for myself,” Soliman says. “This would encourage transparency and help avoid fraudulent marriages.”

There are approximately 4,800 maazuns nationwide, all of whom are male. Each governorate is assigned a number of maazuns proportional to population size, whose job is to perform the marriages for the residents in his district. When an opening for a maazun occurs, candidates submit an application to the family court, which is responsible for selecting the most qualified person.

Eleven candidates applied for the Qinayat opening, 10 of whom were male. On February 25, Soliman was selected as the most qualified, as she was the only candidate with a Master’s degree in law.

The decision has sparked both celebration and outrage, spurring media attention and international debates on the controversy of ‘the first female maazun.’ And Soliman hasn’t even started the job yet: The family court’s selection of Soliman is only a preliminary decision. It must be approved by the Minister of Justice — who has delegated Mohamed Manieh, assistant minister of justice for court affairs, to make the final decision — before she can begin practice.

The most outspoken critics of Soliman’s appointment have been male maazuns across the nation. In what was a testosterone-filled evening, more than 40 representatives from the Gami’yat El-Ma’azeen El-Shariyeen, the nation’s Association of Maazuns, gathered on March 8 for an urgent meeting about how to keep women out of their profession.

Dressed in traditional galabiyas, the maazuns crammed into a small apartment in the Qa’laa district of Cairo. The raspy voices of the elderly men were interrupted by the energetic hollering of younger maazuns; they fought to get their voices heard, not because they disagreed, but because each wanted to present the argument in his own words.

The opposition’s argument is three pronged: The first attacks Soliman’s civil law degree from Zagazig University, claiming that it should not be considered superior to a degree in Shariah from Al-Azhar, which some of the other candidates had.

The second touched on the obstacles that a woman might face in a job that requires her to be on call and in the constant presence of men, something unusual in rural villages such as Qinayat. According to the maazuns at the meeting, it is against both culture and religion for a woman to be involved in the matters and tasks that being a maazun demands.

“Women are created differently from men. Each has their particular features and their own specified purposes,” says Abdul Moneim Ouda, president of the Gami’yat El-Ma’azeen El-Shariyeen. He explains that it has become customary for marriage agreements to be made inside mosques, where he says 90 percent of marriages in Egypt are held. “The woman’s menstrual period prevents her from entering the mosque,” he says, referring to a debated Islamic prohibition. Ouda claims this biological reality means a woman cannot do her job as a maazun without the help of a male who could enter the mosque on her behalf.

Those at the meeting also argued that a maazun must be on call and prepared to document and resolve cases of divorce at any time. According to the maazuns, most divorce cases happen at night; they claim it is difficult for a woman to leave her house after dark to settle a marital dispute. Those attendees were unanimous in their opinion that all females are subject to a male’s guardianship and therefore cannot be free to fully devote herself to the maazun’s duties. “What if her husband forbids her from leaving the house to settle a marital dispute that occurs late at night?” asks one of the members of the group.

One member pointed to a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) which the maazun claimed indicates that women lack in intelligence and religious devotion. Women, he says, are therefore inadequate moderators in the disputes between couples and should not be allowed to hold such positions of responsibility.

The representatives of the Maazun Association called for the reversal of the fatwa allowing women to hold the position, arguing that it is contrary to Shariah and to decades of custom and tradition. Claiming that the fatwa was influenced by political pressure from high-profile women’s rights organizations, the angry maazuns called upon President Hosni Mubarak to intercede.

While some of the arguments against hiring a female maazun may be open to interpretation, opponents claim there are official government policies to back their case. In 1955, the minister of justice reviewed and updated the Laehat El-Ma’azeen, a document stipulating the qualifications and rules for hiring maazuns. A panel appointed by the Ministry of Justice reviews the application packets and the family court’s decision for compliance with the Laehat before presenting it to the Minister of Justice for approval. Only when the decision is approved by the Minister of Justice is the maazun assigned.

According to the Laehat El-Ma’azeen, applicants must be Muslim, Egyptian citizens, over 21 years of age, and have a certificate from one of Al-Azhar’s colleges or from an Egyptian university that teaches Shariah. Applicants must also submit documentation showing that they have completed or been exempt from military service — it is this clause some say disqualifies Soliman.

“The Laehat El-Ma’azeen addresses men alone,” asserts Alaa’ Sada, one of the candidates for the Qinayat maazun job. He points out that Soliman’s application is not complete since she failed to submit one of the documents required by the policy.

The implication is that it is impossible for Soliman — or any other woman — to meet the requirements because unlike their male counterparts, women do not have mandatory military service and therefore cannot obtain the clearance certificate. “If [the policy] addressed women it would have required a different certificate from women called the certificate of public service,” says Sada.

But the government disagrees. “Laehat El-Ma’azeen, just like any other government policy, addresses males only but that does not mean that this job is specified to men,” says Manieh from the Ministry of Justice, noting that in Arabic, the male tense addresses both males and females. Manieh acknowledges that the policy was written a long time ago and may have been addressed to males at the time. “It is about time that we alter this policy to fit the times that we are in now,” he says, adding that a review is underway.

The issue is not going to be settled anytime soon. Manieh says that in cases where there is opposition against the chosen candidate, the ministry takes its time to diligently study the case. “The decision of the ministry [regarding the maazun] may take months and in some cases even years.” et

Amal Soliman may be the one in the headlines, but she is not the first woman to apply for a maazun position. Abeer Hussein Abdul Sayed, 31, submitted her application in September 2004 to become the maazun of Kafr El Shawam in the Imbaba district.

Like Soliman, Abdul Sayed, originally from Aswan but now living in Cairo, is a lawyer and studied Shariah as part of her law degree from Ain Shams University. Her application has everything but the military service document. But unlike Soliman, Abdul Sayed has not heard from the family court since she submitted her application.

“I completed all the documents and submitted a written fatwa from Dar El Iftaa that stated that there is no religious barrier for me to take the job,” she says.

Four years later and the position has not yet been filled — by a male or female. “There was no reason given for the delay,” says Abdul Sayed, though she suspects it is being caused by her application.

“I wanted to be the first female maazun and I am still trying to make it,” says Abdul Sayed. “It is a difficult battle, [but] if I wasn’t up to the task I would not have applied in the first place.”

Abdul Sayed insists that the opposition has no standing as long as religious officials sanction women for this career. “I don’t think any opposition can get in the way of the religious officials,” she says.

It’s a familiar battle, she says. “The first [female] lawyer faced the same problems and the same thing happened with the first [female] judge in Egypt,” says Abdul Sayed, quoting the Arabic saying al-nas a’da ma yaghaloon (people are enemies of what they don’t know).

With enduring optimism, Abdul Sayed has been working with a maazun in her area, assisting him in documenting marriages and resolving marital problems. “This is a sort of training for me,” she says, in preparation for the time when she becomes a maazun.

Abdul Sayed says that the Family Court in Kafr-el Shawam is expected to make its decision on May 27.