Hada News
Egypt's challenge to ban on women taking café and household jobs abroad returns to court on 7 November
More women have asked to join the case against a Labour Ministry ban that follows a ministerial letter of 1 April 2026. The court's own commissioners have already advised that the ban be cancelled.
Egyptian women recruited for café or household work abroad will wait until at least 7 November, the next hearing, to learn whether a ban on those jobs survives. On Saturday 17 October the Administrative Court's First Circuit for Rights and Freedoms, part of the Council of State, put the case back to that date after several women applied to join it as parties opposing the decision.
What the ban covers. The decision was issued by the Labour Ministry department that oversees agencies placing Egyptian workers overseas, carrying out an instruction from the labour minister in an official letter dated 1 April 2026. Court filings described in the Egyptian press list café roles (waitress, drinks server, counter staff, cashier, café manager) and work inside employers' homes, including housekeeping, cooking, home care, personal assistance and home nursing. Youm7 reports that restaurants are covered too.
Who is challenging it. Case 45727 of judicial year 80 was filed by lawyer Hani Sameh with a woman affected by the ban. The defendants include the prime minister, the ministers of labour and interior, and the heads of the national councils for human rights and for women. The suit argues that exploitation should be tackled by policing recruitment agencies, checking contracts and protecting pay, rather than by shutting women out of lawful jobs open to men. It also cites Egypt's commitments under CEDAW.
The commissioners' view. In a legal opinion reported on 13 October, the court's State Commissioners Authority recommended cancelling the decision. It called the rule an unjustified distinction between men and women that the constitution forbids, citing six constitutional articles and articles 5 and 53 of Labour Law 14 of 2025. That is a recommendation; the judgment belongs to the court.
Why it matters: The case will decide whether a whole set of overseas jobs stays closed to Egyptian women while remaining open to men. Women with pending contracts, and the agencies handling them, have a date to watch.