Around 100 kilometres north of Cairo, Fawzia F., 55, sits near a canal in Egypt’s Gharbia Governorate, calling out “Honey-sweet apples.” Since dawn, she has balanced a large aluminium container on her head while gathering apples and carrying vegetables for her family’s lunch—a snapshot of her unacknowledged daily labour.
Since childhood, Fawzia has worked in her family’s fields and home, planting, harvesting, selling produce, raising poultry, and making cheese and butter to sell. Yet, her identity card lists her only as a housewife. This invisible work—the unpaid labour of household chores, caregiving, and other essential tasks performed by women like Fawzia—receives no financial compensation, social recognition, or access to protections like health insurance, retirement benefits, or paid leave. This perpetuates economic dependence and limits opportunities for education, professional development, and personal growth. The physical and emotional toll of this continuously unacknowledged labour can lead to long-term health issues and decreased quality of life despite its critical role in the economy.
After her father’s death, Fawzia learned he had divided his land among her male siblings. This did not provoke anger in the woman who spent her life working on land that was not hers. “Awayedna,” she says, meaning, “these are our traditions.” These customs result in only 1.8 percent of rural women owning land, half of whom co-own it with others. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) 1999 data, women in Egypt own only 5.2 percent of all agricultural land. More recent research published in Feminist Economics in 2020 highlights significant disparities, with women owning 20 percent of land titles in the reclaimed desert areas compared to just 2-6 percent in Egypt’s traditional lands. In addition to these low ownership rates, women often lack control over their land, deferring decisions to male relatives. Another striking disadvantage, according to the 2021 Egypt Family Health Survey (FHS), 33 percent of women working in the agricultural field did not get paid for their work, in comparison with 2.9 per cent of women working in non-agricultural fields.
On 3 December 2017, Egypt amended the law to protect women from having their inheritance rights usurped. Article 49 of the Egyptian Inheritance Law allows imprisonment and fines for those denying heirs their lawful share. Despite these legal advances, women’s inheritance is often still usurped through legal manoeuvres and waivers favouring males, as was the case with Fawzia.
Be it in Lower or Upper Egypt, women’s struggle for fair treatment extends to daily wages and working conditions, as seen in Mona’s story. Mona, 34, gathers grape crops in the desert hinterland of Minya Governorate. She and other women meet before dawn to be transported in an open cargo truck to the farm, earning 60 Egyptian Pounds per day (USD 1.2)—half the wage of their male counterparts.
When Mona S. protested the wage gap, the labour contractor dismissed her concerns, claiming men deserved double the pay because they received double the inheritance under Islamic law and were the household providers. He told Mona she should be grateful for the job as she was easily replaceable. Facing the threat of losing her livelihood, Mona, who supports her children alongside her husband, had no choice but to accept the reality.
In Taha Al-Amida, also located in Minya Governorate 250 kilometres south of Cairo, female farmers face similarly harsh conditions. Before dawn, they wait to be selected by a labour contractor, who then transports them to distant farms. After a 3-hour journey, the women work from sunrise to sunset for half the wage of their male counterparts, with the contractor pocketing a quarter of their already meagre pay.
Hanaa Abdel Hakim, a farmer and activist from Taha Al-Amida, knows these systemic issues well. “I know well what female farmers endure,” she says. For example, women in her village are denied land inheritance under the guise of preserving family property, with ownership transferred to males. After her father’s death, she faced the same challenge. Abdel Hakim legally fought to secure her inheritance and succeeded—a fortune not shared by most female farmers in Egypt.
“I know well what female farmers endure.”
Hanaa Abdel Hakim
This is why and where Abdel Hakim decided to start a union for female farmers despite cultural resistance in her village. She faced opposition from male leaders and farmers who saw her advocacy for women’s rights as a threat. Abdel Hakim’s determination to continue fighting for women’s rights stems from personal experience and the continuous tragedies she’s witnessed. She recalls the murder of a 13-year-old girl by her brother, who claimed to be “avenging the family honour” after the girl was raped while working on a farm. Such harassment and assault against female farmers are common, with perpetrators often acquitted or given lenient sentences.
Violence against women manifests in many forms. In Egypt, three out of ten women aged 15-49 have experienced abuse from their husbands, yet only 37 percent of them reported being injured, according to the 2021 Egypt Family Health Survey. In Abdel Hakim’s village, harmful practices like female genital mutilation (FGM) and early marriage remain prevalent, both strongly linked to education levels. The same survey reveals that 86 percent of ever-married Egyptian women aged 15-49 have undergone FGM. The data indicates a clear trend: higher education correlates with lower rates of FGM. Mothers with access to education and stable income are significantly less likely to subject their daughters to FGM. The likelihood of daughters being circumcised drops from over 45 percent to 18 percent when a mother progresses from having no education to completing secondary school or higher.
This correlation extends to child marriages as well. In Egypt, 7.1 million girls were married before the age of 18, representing 16 percent of all women aged 20 to 24, according to The Child Marriage Monitoring Mechanism. The incidence of child marriage decreases from 31 percent among women with no schooling to just under 14 percent among those who have completed secondary education or higher.
Female farmer-mothers face additional hardships, particularly in finding safe childcare. Legal discrimination exacerbates these challenges. Female farmers are excluded from Article 97 of the Labour Law No. 12 of 2003, which denies them maternity leave, breastfeeding hours, and nursery access. Abdel Hakim recounts tragic stories of mothers who lost their children due to the lack of safe and accessible childcare. In response, Abdel Hakim’s Small Farmers Union of Taha Al-Amida established a nursery for the children of female farmers in Taha Al-Amida, providing a safe place for a nominal fee.
Although the union’s activities are limited by the low wages earned by its members, who barely make enough to feed their families, Abdel Hakim tirelessly campaigns against harmful customs, raising awareness and gaining the trust and membership of 700 women, primarily farmers.
Part of these efforts is the union’s facilitating the issuance of new identity cards for female farmers, granting them the right to social insurance. However, many struggle to afford the insurance subscription fee due to their low wages. “The cost of the ID card is high, and with a daily income of 60 pounds, I can’t afford to pay 300 pounds to get one,” says Nadia Khalaf, a union member. Through the support of the union, she was able to “obtain a personal ID card that lists my occupation as an agricultural worker.”
The union also supports women by developing their skills and training them to start small projects to improve their income, such as sewing and making cleaning products. “I have attended different workshops offered by the union, such as on making laundry detergents, making sweets, sewing, and poultry farming,” says Rasha Mohamed, a union member. “I want to learn about all of them to see which one suits me best. I want to start my own project and improve my income.”
Abdel Hakim remains hopeful. Her journey, which started over 30 years ago as a literacy teacher, led her to establish the first female farmer union in upper Egypt. She wishes to secure the necessary funding for the union to increase services and provide support to women, helping them overcome the difficulties they face. “I hope women in Egypt, especially female farmers, will enjoy a better life and fair working conditions,” says Abdel Hakim. “I hope the day will come when I can proudly say that my village is free from violence and discrimination against women.”
This article is part of The Niles Issue #19, The Feminine & The Nile, produced by Media in Cooperation and Transition (MiCT) with financial support from the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). It is part of the initiative The Niles: Strengthening Media Capacities and Networks in the Nile Basin, supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and commissioned by the German Federal Foreign Office (AA). The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of SIWI, GIZ, the German Federal Foreign Office, or MiCT.
