Biography

Amira Bahei Eddine is the eldest daughter of judge Mahmoud Bahei Eddine, vice-president of the Supreme Court, and elected president of the Judges’ Association for three consecutive sessions, beginning from 1986 until 1988.  Moreover, the general assembly of the Judges’ Association unanimously nominated him honorary president for life.  Amira’s grand father was judge Abdallah Beik Mohamad who begun to profess at the beginnings of the twentieth century, and went on pension in 1940 as judge in the Criminal Court.

• The family environment strongly impregnated by a legal and judiciary atmosphere, gave Amira the opportunity to closely follow the battles conducted by Egyptian judges in 1968 for the independence of the judiciary.  As a consecration of these fights, the judges succeeded to establish the first administrative board of the Judges’ Association, presided by judge Mumtaz Nassar, and composed of ten members holding independent attitudes towards the government.  Based on the strong will to eliminate governmental hegemony over the judiciary, as well as the attempts to strengthen its dependency to the executive power, the board engaged in a courageous campaign.  Unfortunately, this ended with a massacre of the judiciary and the firing of 130 judge and members of the public prosecutor’s department.  Amira’s father was one of the victims, and had to profess as a lawyer until his rehabilitation in 1972.

• In this atmosphere of fight for the liberties and public rights, Amira grew up deeply impacted by the great names in the domain of law who inculcated her the spirit of justice and rights.  Therefore, she was enriched with the values of intellectual independence, refusal of submission to hegemony, and eagerness to fight all forms of injustice, either social or political. 

• In May 1980, Amira graduated from the Faculty of Law at Cairo University after learning the great principles of law taught to her by some of the best professors of law in Egypt, such as: Dr. Gamal Zaki, Dr. Nooman Gomaa, Dr. Naguib Hosni, Dr. Ma’mun Salama, Dr. Samir El Sharkawi, Dr. Gouda Abdel Khalek, and others.

• After graduation, she registered at the Lawyers’ Bar and begun her practical training at the office of Mr. Nabil El Hilali, the famous leftist lawyer and member of the Bar’s board at that time.  She remained in Hilali’s office until June 1987, being acquainted there with various legal fields, ranging from the cases of indemnification for internment and torture, to the cases of defense of workers’ rights, including their right to establish syndicates and being protected from arbitrary expulsion.  She also participated in political trials where Mr. El Hilali was sometimes present as defender, and some other times as defendant.  This period has contributed to develop in the young lawyer a valuable luggage of experience in the area of political cases that were voluntarily apprehended by an elite of Egyptian lawyers who took upon themselves the task to defend political activists against the harassment of the power.  She was, thus, exposed to attend the plea of distinguished professors including among others Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa, Nabil El Hilali, Ahmad El Khawaga, Hamed El Azhari, Mohamad Fahim Amin, Sabri Mobadda, Abdallah El Zoghbi, Adel Amin, Abdallah Selim, and Dr. Esmat Seif El Dawla who deserved the title of “master of the masters” for his seriousness, dedication and excellence.

• Since 1980, Amira is member of the committee for the defense of liberties at the Lawyers’ Bar as well as the committee of freedoms at the National Progressive Assembly Party.  In 1981, she became one of the founding members of the Egyptian Committee for the Defense of Liberties, established by Mr. Abdel Salam Ezzayat.  This Committee played a prominent role in the defense of political prisoners and detainees, especially between the 1^st of September 1981 until April 1982.  This period is related to a high prevalence of dissensions between the regime of President Sadate and his political opponents, that culminated with the detention of 1536 political figures.  It also witnessed several enquiries conducted by the Socialist Prosecutor with many intellectuals and politicians from the opposition accused to work for the service of foreign countries, in the famous case called by the media “The Apple Case”.  In punishment for its vanguard role in this case and its opposition to the Camp David agreements, the Lawyers’ Bar was dissolved by President Sadate, and a temporary administration board was nominated by presidential decree to replace the board freely elected by the general assembly.  In this context, Amira participated in the wide movement of resistance that included all generations of lawyers and took the form of a sit-in in the Bar that was attended by Mr. Ahmad El Khawaga, the legal president of the Bar then, as well as the previous president Mr. Abdel Aziz El Shurbagy, besides several members of the abolished board.  The sit-in lasted for three weeks during which the Bar was surrounded by security forces and its members subject to huge political pressures.  However, this protest movement ended with success, backed by several judgments issued by the Supreme Administrative Court.

• Besides her professional activities, she attended the majority of political cases presented to the Courts between 1980 and 1984.  She also participated in the defense committees organized by the Committee for the Defense of Liberties at the Lawyers’ Bar before the prosecutor’s department for State security and at the Criminal Court.  In October 1984, she joined the women’s committee of the Arab Lawyers’ Federation formed during its Conference held in Sousse, Tunisia.  Since 1985, her concern with women’s issues took a specific dimension, leading her to participate in the activities of the women’s committee created in the context of the World Youth Conference that took place in Moscow the same year. 

• Moreover, she contributed in the women’s pressures exerted by feminist organizations and public figures before the issuance of the Family Code No. 100 in 1985.

• In 1986, she attended the First Conference on Justice organized by the Judges’ Association in order to discuss justice, its implementation and procedures, and participated in the committee about “the procedures of lawsuits”, providing several legal recommendations aimed at simplifying these procedures without being detrimental to the rights of the different parties.  The committee was then chaired by judge Mustafa Keera, vice-president of the Supreme Court.

• In June 1987, Amira left Mr. Nabil El Hilali to inaugurate her own office of attorneys that became later “A. Bahie Eddine Office of Attorneys and Legal Consultations”.

• In June 1987, Amira participated in the defense team who voluntarily took the defense of the members of the Acting and Movie Profession’s Syndicate who were fighting for the independence of their organization, and other claims such as the limitation of the tenure of any chairman to two sessions only.  The members of the syndicate had organized a sit-in, followed by a hunger strike of several artists, as a protest against the issuance of a law that did not take in consideration many of their claims.

• In 1988, Amira undertook a legal research titled “A comparison between the World Chart of Human Rights and Egyptian laws” that she presented in a meeting jointly organized by the Arab Organization for Human Rights and the Tunisian Organization for Human Rights in Tunis at the occasion of forty years after the adoption of the World Chart of Human Rights.

• During the same year, she participated in the First Intellectual Forum organized by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights where she presented the research mentioned above that was included in the book published about the proceedings of the Conference.  She also joined the membership of this organization until 1991 when she was elected member of its Board of Trustees chaired at this time by Ambassador Mohamad Ibrahim Kamel.  She was re-elected in the next session that ended in 1995.

• In June 1989, Amira participated in the Conference of the Arab Lawyers Federation held in Syria, where she presented a paper titled “The relationship between Women and the Egyptian Legal System”.

• In the same year, she attended the Arab Conference organized by The Arab Women Solidarity Association about women’s rights and violence against women, and presented a paper about the topic mentioned before.

• In 1990, she presented in the monthly meeting of the Arab Women Solidarity Association a study titled “A new reading of old papers – are women guilty or victims?”.

• In 1990, she participated in a Conference in Manilla organized by a group of women’s associations from Philippines about several issues concerning women, including reproductive rights and violence against women.  Her main focus during this Conference was on violence against women, and specifically on domestic violence.

• She went to Manilla a second time during 1990 as representative of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights to attend a Conference that included hundreds of human rights organizations concerned with the fight against torture and the mechanisms of speedy intervention and hot lines.

• In 1992, she participated in the electoral campaign for the administrative board of the Lawyers’ Bar following a statement issued by the group of Muslim Brothers running for elections, saying that they would impose the veil on female lawyers if they won.  Several female lawyers issued a counter statement titled “A massacre is undergoing against female lawyers”, obliging the Muslim Brothers to capitulate and deny the content of their communiqué.

• In 1993, Amira was chosen by UNICEF – among a team of experts including Dr. Adel Azer, Dr. Sawsan El Messiri, and Ms. Mona Zulfikar – to give a series of lectures in several group discussions with parliamentarians about women and children’s rights.  The first meeting took place in Cairo, the second in Hurgada, and the third in Sharm El Sheikh.  In the three meetings, Amira delivered lectures about the status of women in Egyptian legislation.

• In February 1993, she participated in a seminar held in the context of the Cairo International Book Fair about “Egyptian women and the movement of enlightening” presided by Dr. Radwa Ashur where she gave a lecture titled “women and law” with Dr. Murad Wahba and Dr. Nasr Hamed Abu Zeif as co-speakers.

• In October 1993, she participated with a group of Egyptian researchers in a study about women-headed households, and prepared a paper as part of the comprehensive research.  This paper was also presented at the Conference organized to discuss the research findings.

• By the end of 1993, Amira prepared with UNICEF-Egypt a research about violence against women that included a theoretical section and a section based on the review of the media in presenting this phenomenon.  The research was titled “Women, violence and counter-violence”.  During the same period, she prepared a study about domestic violence: “The case of Rabe’a Soliman Matar: a typical case of domestic violence”.

• In the beginnings of 1994, she joined several women activists in the fields of women’s rights and human rights in the preparatory activities for the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994).  In this context, she participated in the committee for women’s enhancement in the society that had several sub-committees, including a legal committee that conducted a number of studies to be presented in the Conference.  Amira’s study titled “Discrimination against women in the Penal Code”  was first presented before the preparatory consultative meetings held for Civil Society Organizations in Cairo and Minya, as well as before the ICPD.  The document published by Egyptian NGOs about the status of women includes this paper.  The research findings are also part of the documentary movie realized by art director Atteyyat El Abnudi (“Responsible Women”) indicating that 25% of Egyptian households are headed by women.

• In July 1994, she presented a research paper titled “Aggressions in Reality” at the meeting about the female child under legal protection organized by UNICEF-Cairo.

• In November 1994, she attended the preparatory meeting of the Beijing World Conference held in Amman – Jordan where she presented her study “Women, violence and counter violence”.  In December of the same year, she participated in a meeting about female genital cutting where she presented a paper titled “Streams for discussion: Female Circumcision Between Legal Prohibition and the Hegemony of Social Norms”.  The paper was later published in a book as part of the proceedings of the mentioned meeting.

• Since the end of 1994 until the convening of Beijing World Conference on Women, she participated in several preparatory activities with other Egyptian women activists.  In this regard, she conducted in coordination with other activists, and the support of the Population Council, a study titled “Primary Indicators of Women’s Status in Arab countries”.  Responsible of the legal section, Amira conducted interviews with the heads of Arab Lawyers’ Bars during the meeting of the Permanent Bureau of Arab Lawyers Federation held in Tunisia in May 1995, and reviewed Arab Constitutions and Laws.  The study was included in a book titled “Arab Women – A glimpse of Diversity and Change”.

• During this period, she participated in the proceedings of a Conference organized by the Arab Institute for Human Rights in Tunis about the preparatory activities for the Beijing Conference, in order to facilitate coordination among Arab NGOs and public figures.  In June 1995, she participated in Beirut in the Arab Women’s Tribunal that attended later in Beijing.  She was selected as one of the seven female judges who listened to the testimonies of women victims of violence.  At the closing session, Amira presented the statement of the Tribunal, and participated in August in the editing of the final statement including the claims for rights.  In September, she attended the Beijing Conference, and presented at the commission of discrimination against women her research paper “Primary Indicators on Women’s Status in Arab Countries”.

• In October 1996, Amira published her first novel “El Eid” (The Feast) that was selected by the distinguished Egyptian critic, Dr. Fatma Musa, as the best book of the year.

• In December 1996, she attended a meeting about “Women and Public Issues” held in Cairo, and presented her paper titled “Primary Indicators on Women’s Status in Arab Countries”.

• In 1997, she participated in a meeting organized by AMIDEAST in Cairo at the Upper Egypt Organization for Education and Development about the relationship between women and the legal system, and presented a paper on women and the Family Code.

• In 2000, she participated in the Forum of Dialogue about the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, organized by Frederich Ebert Foundation in Cairo.  In February 1998, she contributed with a paper titled “Women Judges: Legal Acceptance and Actual Obstacles” at the meeting convened by the Center for the Independence of the Judiciary.

• In February 2000, Amira delivered a lecture at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights, presenting a critical perspective of the new Law No. 1/2000 about “Kholo’” (The right of women to request divorce for incompatibility).

• In 2004, she participated in the Conference organized by the Alliance of Arab Women under the name “Together we can confront violence against women” with a paper titled “The legal dimension of violence against women”.

• In December 2005, she participated in a meeting jointly organized by the Forum of Women’s Organizations for Change (The Arab Alliance of Women, the New Woman Foundation, and the Center of Egyptian Women Issues) for the evaluation of the parliamentarian elections and the marginalization of women.  Her contribution consisted in commenting on the report presented by the three organizations.

• In December 2005, she participated in the Conference organized in Cairo by the New Woman Foundation under the title “Towards a United Women’s Movement in a Free Democratic Country”, and commented on the research papers in one of the sessions concerned with “The position of political forces (Islamic, Marxist, and Nasserist) towards women’s issues”.

• In January 2006, she participated in a workshop organized by the Center for the Independence of the Judiciary titled “Is There a Way to Overcome Egyptians’ Racism” where she maintained that Egyptians are not racist and that accusing them to be racists is contrary to the reality.

• In January 2006, she participated in a workshop organized by the Center for the Independence of the Judiciary titled “Egyptian Women to become judges” where she presented a paper on “The concrete obstacles preventing women to become judges”.

•  Over ten years - since the summer of 1996 - she participates in the training workshops organized by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights addressed to students from the Egyptian universities about human rights.  In this context, she delivers annually a lecture about women in the legal system, and the relationship between legislation, Islamic Shari’a, and social norms.

• At the media level, Amira Bahie Eddine has participated in several TV and radio programs, all evolving around women’s rights:

«  She participated with Mr. Emad Adib – and later on with Mr. Gamal Enayat – in several sequences of the famous program “Aala Alhawa” (On Air) presented by the first channel of Orbit TV, all of them regarding women’s issues.

«  She participated in the program “El Beyut Asrar” (Houses have their Secrets) broadcasted by ART about the rent of wombs and the alternative mothers.

«  She participated in the program “Ahlam El Banat” (Dreams of Girls) during her attendance of the Conference “Towards a Unified Women’s Movement”.

«  She participated in the press conference held by some women’s organizations to protest against the judgment of the Court concerning the refusal to affiliate Hind El Hennawi’s daughter to her father.  The proceedings of the press conference were reproduced in the Dream satellite channel.

«  She participated twice in the program “El Beit Beitak” (The House is Yours) presented in the second channel of the Egyptian TV: first time in 2005 about the amendment of the law regarding the custody of mothers, and the second time in the beginnings of 2006 about “Orfi” marriage (type of marriage non registered legally but based on a mutual written agreement between the two parties with the presence of two witnesses) and the cases seeking to prove children’s affiliation to the father.

 «  In the beginnings of 2006, she participated in the program “Al Hayat” (Life) presented by channel 2 of Dream TV about the amendment of some procedural clauses related to the proof of children’s affiliation to their fathers.

«   Since August 2005 – date of inauguration of the daily newspaper “Rose El Youssef” – she publishes weekly articles.

•  Amira is married since 1979 with an IT consultant. she is a mother of two daughters, the oldest at her Final year in chemical eengineering UC,   and the youngest is still a student in preparatory school.