In a historical decission, the Directorate of Social Affairs in Giza, Egypt has agreed to establish the Egyptian Association for the Defense of the Rights of Men and Children, the first association in the country to defend men’s rights in family law.

According to Ahmed Matar Rizk, lawyer and chairman of the association’s board of directors who spoke to Al-Sharqiya, the goal of the association is to preserve the entity of the Egyptian family while resisting the steady rise in divorce cases.

He further stated that the main intention of the association is to protect the male legal rights and to protect them from abuse, harassment, imprisonment and loss of child custody when a wife initiates the divorce proceedings.

Till date, there were laws protecting only women when divorce was initiated by a wife.