Until 2000, Egyptian and Islamic law provided the wife with a very limited right to initiate a divorce, one of these being the right of the wife to divorce her husband on the grounds of impotence if she discovered when the marriage was consummated that his penis did not exceed the thickness of three fingers.

A major development occurred in late January 2000 when the 454-member Egyptian Parliament voted to allow women to divorce their husbands without first having to prove to a judge that they had been mistreated. Under the new legislation, which was quickly approved by President Hosni Mubarak, divorce will still be more complicated for a woman than a male.

With the new law, an Egyptian woman now has two choices. She can still use the often-protracted procedure, which requires her to have witnesses to prove to a family court judge that her husband mistreated her badly enough to justify divorce. In the end, the court procedure usually results in a ruling against the wife. Despite these disadvantages, 1.5 million such requests are filed each year, according to government statistics.

The new option, which allows a woman to demand a divorce on the basis of incompatibility, requires a six-month wait for a woman with children, and a three-month wait if there are no children involved. If a judge fails to reconcile the couple in this period and she still wants a divorce, the judge has to grant a divorce. However, the woman has to return all money, property, and gifts she received in the marriage and forego alimony. Prior to the new law of 2000, a Muslim man in Egypt could end his marriage by saying three times, “I divorce you,” or by filing with a government registrar a document testifying to his action. Under the new law, a man must file the divorce paper.

The situation of the six percent of Christian Egyptians remains as burdensome as before, because religious courts, which administer family law, rarely grant Christian women a divorce unless she can prove adultery.

Many leading clerics supported the change, including the government-appointed mufti (legal advisors on religious matters) and the sheik of Al Azhar University, the oldest Islamic teaching institution in the world. Supporters of the change point out that even the Prophet Muhammad allowed an unhappy woman to divorce her husband over his opposition, provided she first returned her dowry.

In the impassioned debate on the new law, opponents argued that Islam gives only men the right to initiate a divorce. Extending this right to women, whom they described both in Parliament and the media as emotionally capricious and vengeful, would lead to a massive breakdown of family life. The opponents' point of view is this will only lead to more and more splits within the society.This law will instigate women to be corrupt. A woman could just get together with another man and agree to divorce her husband!!.

Establishment of a woman’s right to initiate a divorce is a major advancement for women in Egypt in light of the strong fundamentalist movement.