The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) warns against the continued exclusion of married and previously married students from housing at several Egyptian universities. 

EIPR calls on the Supreme Council of Universities to review housing regulations and repeal conditions that discriminate on the basis of gender or marital status. Eligibility for university housing should reflect students’ needs, not their marital history.

Housing requirements at Aswan University have sparked widespread controversy in recent days after a female student applying for accommodation for the 2026–2027 academic year was asked to submit a declaration and a certificate confirming that she was unmarried and had never been married, signed by two serving state employees and bearing the official state seal.

These practices violate the constitutional right to privacy and deny students the right to have their applications assessed according to their housing needs. They also make a woman’s marital status and personal history a condition for accessing a service that may determine whether she can continue her education. 

Universities are places of learning and equal opportunity, responsible for providing a safe and fair environment in which all students can complete their studies. Their regulations should not become tools for intruding into students’ private lives or imposing restrictions unrelated to their right to education.

A review of published housing requirements at several public universities reveals differences in both the wording and application of the marriage restriction. Universities such as Beni Suef, Benha and Mansoura require applicants to be unmarried at the time of application, using formulations such as “the male or female student must not be married.” 

Some provisions at Cairo, Helwan and Ain Shams universities go further, requiring female students never to have been married. At some universities, including Ain Shams and Helwan, the condition applies explicitly to women, with no equivalent wording for men.

These conditions discriminate on the basis of marital status by excluding married women, as well as divorced and widowed women where the restriction extends to anyone previously married. They also discriminate on the basis of gender when imposed on women alone. None of these distinctions has an objective connection to the purpose of university housing.

Requiring a female student to submit a certificate or declaration from two witnesses confirming that she “has never been married” also violates her privacy and dignity. It may expose her to social stigma by tying her eligibility for housing to her marital history. Universities should have no role in investigating that history or requiring women to prove a personal status unrelated to their housing needs or academic abilities.

The bylaws of the Universities Organization Law, No. 49 of 1972, issued by Presidential Decree No. 809 of 1975, govern the management of university residences and the conditions for admission. Article 112 establishes university residences as units affiliated with their respective universities. Under Article 113, residence councils propose general policy and draft internal regulations, including admission requirements and procedures, residency rules and disciplinary measures, subject to approval by the university council.

Including a condition in an internal regulation does not shield it from legal and human rights scrutiny, particularly when it intrudes on private life or restricts female students because of their gender or marital status.

Housing criteria include enrollment, distance from home, available capacity, social need, and academic and health requirements. What bearing does a current or previous marriage have on eligibility? Any additional restriction must have a clear legal basis and an objective justification, and must be necessary and proportionate to the purpose of regulating accommodation.

Access to university housing is inseparable from the right to education and equal opportunity. Denying a woman accommodation because of her marital status may impose additional costs or force her to travel long distances, making it harder to continue her studies, particularly if she comes from a distant governorate or area. In some circumstances, a married, divorced or widowed student may have a greater need for university housing, not less entitlement to it.

Protecting female students does not justify paternalism, restriction of rights, or discrimination. Nor does equal access to housing mean abolishing residency rules. It means ensuring that those rules are clear, objective and relevant to their purpose, rather than rooted in stigma or discrimination.

EIPR calls on the Supreme Council of Universities and the relevant government authorities to:

• Urgently review all university housing regulations and rules, and repeal any condition that excludes students solely because they are or have been married. Housing criteria should be relevant to need and distance from home, and proportionate to the purpose of regulating accommodation.

• Review procedures for collecting female students’ personal data, limiting collection to information directly relevant to housing applications and respecting privacy and human dignity.

• End requirements for students to submit declarations or certificates from state employees confirming that they have never been married.

• Review financial and administrative guarantee requirements to ensure they are necessary and proportionate to their purpose, do not impose unequal burdens on male and female students, and do not discriminate against women in the most vulnerable economic and social circumstances.

• Publish complete university housing regulations in an accessible format on official university websites, allowing students to understand their rights and obligations before applying.

• Subject any differences in housing requirements for male and female students to legal and human rights review, ensuring that they rest on objective, proportionate criteria and do not discriminate on the basis of sex or marital status.