Egypt first female judge named.’ Tahani Al-Gabali‘ was the vice president of the Supreme Constitutional Court, who passed away at the age of 71 in Giza hospital. She was being treated for the disease after coming in touch with the COVID-19.
Al-Gabebi was the first woman who held a judicial position in Egypt. She was selected in 2003. She became the vice president of the Supreme Constitutional Court in 2007, during the most sensitive years of its history.
Al-Gabebi graduated from Cairo University’s Faculty of Law in 1973. She also did the diploma in Islamic Sharia.
Moreover, she was the first woman elected as a board member of the Egyptian Lawyer syndicate in 1989 and was re-elected in the next round.
She was also the first woman elected to be a member of the Permanent Bureau of the Union Arab Lawyers in 1992.
She also served as a legal expert at the UN, an international commercial Arbitrator, and a lecturer at the Institue of Arab for Human rights in Tunisia.
El-Gebeli funeral was held on January 9 in her home town of Tanta, which is the largest city of Egypt’s Gharbia. Many people attended her funeral. Even her funeral was also broadcast on local television channels.
She was the only woman in the court until the installation of 32 others into the Judiciary in 2007.
After the news of her death got viral, Egyptian social media platforms were markedly divided on her legacy.
Some people mourned because they lost the country’s most prominent feminists, whilst others criticised her for constitutional amendments that she approved after the 2011 popular uprising that removed Mubarak.
Many people widely criticised her rulings during her uprising and handled it to the military-led interim government that preceded the brief rule of Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohmmad Morsi.