The Malaz Foundation for Women’s Support issued a new policy paper entitled “Marriage as a Cover for Exploitation: A Rights-Based Analysis of Trafficking in Women and Girls and the Role of Intermediaries and Brokers in Egypt” on Saturday, 30 August. The paper addresses the phenomenon of temporary exploitative marriage involving women and girls in Egypt, as one form of exploitation that may be concealed behind a relationship that appears, on the surface, to be a marriage that fulfills legal requirements, while in some cases being based on the exploitation of need, poverty, or vulnerability, or on deception, coercion, control, or the pursuit of material benefit from the more vulnerable party.

The paper raises a fundamental issue: treating these crimes as merely family disputes or marital conflicts may obscure their exploitative nature and lead to shortcomings in protection and accountability.

The paper does not proceed from the assumption that every temporary or short-term marriage constitutes a crime of trafficking or exploitation. Rather, it distinguishes between a consensual relationship, on the one hand, and a relationship in which genuine freedom of choice is absent, or in which the vulnerability of a woman or girl is exploited to secure a benefit for a third party, on the other.

Link: https://dub.sh/qNr4q0o