Arab States (excepting North Africa
and the Gulf)National constitutions in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan,
Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine identify the equality
of citizens of both sexes before the law; Egypt, Iraq,
Jordan, and Lebanon ratified the Convention on
the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW). This suggests uneven patterns of world-
wide protection, meaning some Arab women enjoy
law-based health benefits, employment safeguards,
and paid maternity leave, while others are left
unprotected. In general, working women enjoy dif-
ferential work protection on account of their sector
of employment; the predominance of women em-
ployed in education and civil service in the central
Arab states prohibits them from either joining labor
unions or participating in collective bargaining.
Sovereign central Arab states are party to the
International Labour Organization Forced Labour
Convention 1930 (ILO C. 29); the Right to Organ-
ize and Collective Bargaining Convention 1949
(98); the Equal Remuneration Convention 1951
(100); the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention
1957 (105); and the Discrimination (Employment
and Occupation) Convention 1958 (111). Yet in
all six states, public demonstrations require the
authorities’ prior approval; in Egypt, Syria, and
Iraq, labor issues are or recently have been the
purview of a state-based trade union federation. Of
the ILO “core conventions,” Iraq, Jordan, and
Lebanon have not ratified the Freedom of Asso-
ciation and Protection of the Right to Organize
Convention, 1948 (No. 87), as discussed below. All
states’ trade unions are affiliated to the Inter-
national Confederation of Arab Trade Unions
(ICATU).
Egypt’s state has taken responsibility for the
interests of those women who work even though at
present the unemployment rate is 19 percent among
women and 5 percent among men (Farah 2002, 1).
Egypt’s constitution of 1956, and as amended two
years later, guarantees women’s equality with men
before the law. The 1971 constitution adds: “The
state is responsible for striking a balance between
woman’s family duties and her work in society and
standing on equal footing with men in political,
Political-Social Movements: Unions and Workers’
Movements
social, cultural and economic domains.” Laws 47
and 48 of 1978 regulate Egyptian women working
in the public sector. Three times during their work-
ing lives, such women have the right to a three-
month paid maternity leave and two-year unpaid
childcare leaves. Women working part-time have
the right to half salary and half-holidays. Law 137
for 1981 extended ILO benefits – working women
and men are equal before the labor law; women are
forbidden from night work, immoral, or unhealthy
work – to the private sector; the law went on to
require that private firms also offer paid maternity
leave, lactation breaks, and unpaid childcare leaves,
as well as requiring employers of more than 100
women to provide childcare.
If Egypt’s state has taken responsibility for work-
ing women’s interests, this legal framework is not
necessarily to all workers’ benefit. While Egyptian
workers may join trade unions, the law does not
require them to do so; it is notable that most union
members (approximately a quarter of the labor
force) work in state-owned enterprises. The gov-
ernment sets wages, benefits, and job classifications
by law, so few issues are open to negotiation. A
1985 ILO report notes that, in contravention to
ILO C. 87 to which Egypt is signatory, the Egyptian
Trade Union Federation is the named central organ-
ization of a legally-proscribed single trade-union
system. Workers’ right to strike is not guaranteed
by law; the public prosecutor may call for a trade
union employee’s removal from office should that
employee call for abandonment of work or be
deliberately absent from public service (Upham
1991, 132). While existing labor laws are preju-
diced against collective bargaining, the new Unified
Labor currently under discussion in the parliament
would provide the right to strike and statutory
authorization for collective bargaining (United
States Department of State 1998). However, activ-
ists on behalf of working women complain that the
new law would represent a step backward from the
present levels of working mothers’ entitlements.
Iraq’s 1970 constitution granted women equal
access to education, property, the franchise, and
public office (article 19). Iraq’s labor law no. 151
(1970), its provisions renewed by law no. 81 (1987),
established women’s right to equal opportunities in