The manager of a hotel in Egypt has been jailed for turning away a solo female traveller.
An appeals court in Port Said overturned an earlier acquittal of the manager, who refused to give a female journalist a room because she was travelling alone. He was sentenced in his absence to one year in prison with labour, and a fine of 50,000 Egyptian pounds ($950).
The court accepted an appeal by prosecutors and reversed a March 10 judgment that had cleared the manager of discrimination charges, the guest confirmed. The hotel had said it was following an internal policy.
Rights groups have described the verdict, announced on Monday, as one of the first criminal convictions in Egypt for gender-based discrimination in tourist accommodation.
The case dates to January, when the female journalist attempted to check into a Port Said hotel and was told that “single women are not allowed.”
She filed a police report in Port Said, prompting prosecutors to open a case under Article 161 of Egypt's penal code, which criminalises sex-based discrimination that denies equal opportunity, she recounted in a Facebook post.
In the March hearing, the lower court accepted the hotel's rationale – that it refused to lodge women alone “for fear that men may visit them”, as an internal policy rather than a criminal act – and ordered the woman to pay legal costs.
The prosecutors, following requests from the woman, appealed on April 7.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and the New Woman Foundation have said the case is not isolated but part of a recurring pattern, particularly at provincial hotels that often turn away unaccompanied women under vague “security” or “administrative” justifications.
They argue the practice breaches articles of the constitution that prohibit sex-based discrimination, and other legal provisions that oblige hotels to admit guests without gender bias.
The ruling was issued while the manager was absent from court. According to the legal code, it will take effect once he is formally served notice.
No further hearing of such a case – a misdemeanour – is allowed under Egyptian law, which means the manager can only challenge the verdict before Egypt's highest court, and only on narrow legal grounds, not on the established facts.
