The difference between the official and unofficial marriage contract (Orfi) in Egypt

Many women do not distinguish between a legal marriage and a non-legal marriage and can be easily deceived. To help understand the difference, let us look at them.

Let’s start with the legal conditions for marriage according to Islamic law. Marriage in Islam must meet these conditions to be valid:

•  -Marriage between healthy men and women, of legal age 18 years and have no impediment   to marry.

•   -The will of the bride must be to complete the marriage without coercion

•  – Be public and witnesses must be available.

•   -The dowry.

•   -Do not have a time limit for the validity of the marriage contract.

By law, the government discovered that in the last 100 years, the spouses can have problems if there is no evidence of official marriage documents, so it establishes a rule that any marriage must be through official means, that is, be assured  the rights of the wife and children. The only legal marriage between a foreigner and an Egyptian national is the one that takes place in the Ministry of Justice.

 Also, Islam gives the wife and husband the right to write any conditions in the marriage contract, if it is not contrary to the concept of marriage and conditions.

 So, according to Islamic law, there is no difference between official and unofficial marriages if all the conditions for marriage are available, even for the purposes of Islamic rules that are concerned with the rights of the wife and child.  Due to the certain social problems or inactions of human beings, the official contract is the best option and the only legal one.

 One of the biggest questions is what will happen if the husband, after the marriage, does not want to admit the marriage?  In this case, we must comply with the law to prove that this relationship is legal. In fact, the law says what will make the difference between the official marriage contract and  non official.

  The official marriage gives the wife all the rights of hers plus she can write all the conditions of hers as she wants.  The Orfi,  (an unofficial contract) gives the wife only two options:

  -First to prove that she has a legal relationship with her husband, but this through a file in court.  After that, she will only have the ability to prove that the child that came from this marriage is no longer from this man or whether it is.

  – The second is to ask about the divorce when she wants.  The future child of this marriage will be at risk if the father does not want to give her aname;  in this case, the wife has to file a complaint so that the child is recognized and registered with the name of her father.

 Furthermore, according to Orfi, the wife does not have the right to inheritance, she also does not have the child before obtaining the name of her father.

  From that, all she can see is that the marriage conditions that will be through Orfi are nothing compared to an officially registered marriage, because the only rights of that marriage, as she can see, are the proof about the relationship and the ability of the  divorce.

 The official marriage cares about the rights of the wife 100%.  In many ways like:

  1- She has an official document that says that she has a legal relationship with this man.  She can go to any hotel, government, and police stations for anything.

  2- She has the right to obtain payments from her husband by law if he does not want to do it of his own free will.

  3- She has the right to request Egyptian nationality.

  4- She has the right to obtain an official birth certificate for the future child, even without the will of her father.

  5- She has the right to inheritance from her husband.

  6- She has the right to reside in Egypt for 1: 5 years without obtaining nationality.

  All this without any case in court just for marriage contract.

 I give you an example of official marriage in the Ministry of Justice