CAIRO: Egyptian women must not sit as judges because it would be against Islamic law as they would have to spend time alone with men, a male Egyptian judge was quoted as saying yesterday.

A woman judge would “contradict Article Two of the constitution” which states that the principal source of legislation is Sharia, judges’ syndicate president Yahia Ragheb Daqruri said. The judges’ syndicate position “is based on the consensus of doctors of law and the principles of Sharia,” the Al Masri Al Yom daily quoted Daqruri as saying. “When a woman works as a judge, her work requires her to be alone in a room with two or more male judges to deliberate… Is this appropriate? A woman judge will also become pregnant at some point, and that will certainly have an impact on the judiciary’s prestige and on judges’ public image,” he said.