Videos of a small protest by fathers and grandmothers spread online on Saturday after a State Council court hearing in a lawsuit over Egypt’s long-delayed personal status law, with demonstrators chanting, “The people want the president to intervene” and “We want to see our kids.”
The protest, the lawsuit, and a burst of debate tied to the Ramadan TV series “A the Father, But” have all revived demands from separated fathers for broader custody rights and overnight access to their children, instead of the limited visitation currently allowed under the law.
Although the case has been before the court since 2022, the latest protest was linked to debate surrounding the TV series which spotlights the struggles of separated fathers trying to see their children. Plaintiff Mohamed El-Ashawy told Al Manassa the show had “stirred stagnant waters” and succeeded in bringing fathers’ suffering to the screen.
El-Ashawy said he is counting on both the lawsuit and the television drama to push the issue to the president, especially after El-Sisi praised dramas airing during the current Ramadan season, which El-Ashawy sees as a sign the president may respond to their demands.
Lowering the custody age and seeking overnight access
According to El-Ashawy, about 200 affected fathers and grandmothers joined the case at Saturday’s hearing. The suit seeks to compel the prime minister and relevant authorities to submit a draft personal status bill changing current custody rules.
Demonstration at the State Council by fathers affected by the Personal Status Law, March 14, 2026The plaintiffs want the custody age lowered to 7 for boys and 9 for girls, arguing that the current age of 15 deprives fathers of building a healthy relationship with their children during their formative years.
Explaining their demand for overnight access, El-Ashawy said “the current visitation system, which limits a father’s time with his child to three hours at a youth center or public club, is punitive for both father and child.”
According to the lawsuit, the new law should explicitly allow a child to stay overnight with the father and his family to ensure meaningful human contact between them.
Case No. 66468 for Judicial Year 79 relies on directives El-Sisi issued in 2022 calling for a new personal status law for Muslims and family courts aimed at reducing disputes and delivering swift justice through a balanced vision that guarantees the rights of all family members.
The lawsuit states that Omar Marwan, now chief of the presidential diwan, issued a decision while serving as justice minister to form a committee to draft the bill and authorized it to use official state data and statistics to produce a realistic law.
That decision, issued on June 5, 2022, gave the committee four months to finish its work and submit a draft law to the ministry, according to the lawsuit.
El-Ashawy said the committee’s head recently made media statements confirming the draft had been completed, but that the government continues to delay sending it to the House of Representatives. He described that failure as an administrative refusal to act that violates both the law and presidential directives.
A likely failure in court
“A ruling of inadmissibility awaits the case as filed, which seeks to compel the government to submit legislative amendments to parliament, no matter how long the litigation takes,” a judicial source at the Administrative Court told Al Manassa.
The source, who asked not to be named in line with State Council instructions barring its members from speaking to the media, said the court’s rulings have consistently held that such cases fall within the heart of legislative work, which the Administrative Court has no jurisdiction to review under the constitutional principle of separation of powers.
The source cited dozens of rulings to that effect, including a January 2013 decision that courts had no jurisdiction to force the government to issue a freedom of information law.
El-Ashawy said the State Commissioners Authority report in his case took the same view. While acknowledging a 50% chance that the case could be rejected in the court of first instance, he said that would not be the end of the road but a necessary step in the litigation process.
He said he is betting on the Higher Administrative Court, where he believes the chance of success approaches 100% because of what he sees as its deeper legal and constitutional expertise. He said he is convinced the government’s failure to submit a new personal status bill amounts to an administrative refusal to act, not a matter shielded by separation of powers.
In that context, El-Ashawy also commented on the latest ministerial decision depriving people who fail to pay alimony of government services, calling it the “administrative slaughter” of fathers in the absence of balanced rights.
“How can administrative and financial penalties on the father be increased while he is denied overnight access to his children?” he asked.
He said focusing on the financial side without resolving the crisis of visitation and custody only fuels social tension and does not serve the child’s best interests.
Media pressure from TV drama
El-Ashawy’s demands have also stirred broad debate in women’s rights circles. Abdel Fattah Yahya, a lawyer at the Center for Egyptian Women's Legal Assistance (CEWLA), said demands to lower the custody age clash with Egypt’s constitutional and international obligations, foremost the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which defines childhood as lasting until age 18.
Yahya told Al Manassa that Egyptian law, which sets the custody age at 15 and keeps the child with the mother during that period, is consistent with “the best interests of the child” at that age. He said changing those rules cannot be done through a “media frenzy” or pressure from television drama, but requires carefully studied legislation that takes into account intersecting laws, including the Child Law and binding international agreements.
As for replacing visitation with overnight access, Yahya said CEWLA does not reject overnight stays in principle, but insists on strict conditions to guarantee the child’s safety.
He said overnight access should be limited to a “committed father” who pays the required support and does not use the child to punish the mother or bargain with her, including by manipulating the child’s school records.
He warned that allowing overnight access without strong safeguards could lead to more serious crimes such as child abduction or physical abuse, arguing that the state’s primary role is to protect the child before considering the wishes of the disputing parties.
Yahya said several balanced personal status law drafts already exist, noting that CEWLA submitted three draft laws to parliament in 2011, 2017, and 2021. He added that the judicial committee formed by the Justice Ministry in 2022 had in fact completed a bill that includes provisions for overnight access, but the state has not yet decided to formally release it.
On the legal track, Yahya described the lawsuit seeking to force the government to submit the bill as an exercise in “media vanity” and an attempt to gain visibility, saying the Administrative Court, under settled law, has no authority to review the submission of draft laws because such matters fall within the spheres of sovereignty and legislation.
He linked the latest protests to the impact of Ramadan television drama, specifically the series “A Father, But,” calling it seasonal activism that will quickly fade when the drama season ends, without changing Egypt’s legal realities or its international obligations toward the rights of children and women.
The Administrative Court postponed consideration of the case to an April 18 session so that the intervention requests by the new plaintiffs can be formally established, according to El-Ashawy, who still hopes his lawsuit, even if rejected, will help stir stagnant waters and push the government to settle the demands.
