A misdemeanor court in Port Said acquitted a hotel manager of a gender discrimination charge after he refused on Jan. 4 to book a room for a woman journalist on her own. The manager claimed that internal rules barred women from checking in without a companion. The incident sparked broad rights and feminist solidarity at the time.
The ruling is likely to deepen concern among rights advocates, who say it could embolden hotels to keep restricting women traveling alone despite legal protections against discrimination.
The Public Prosecution had referred the hotel manager to trial over the incident at Al Safwa Utopia Hotel in Port Said, saying his conduct constituted discrimination on the basis of sex and violated the principles of equal opportunity and social justice.
Although the hotel manager admitted during the prosecution investigation that he had refused to accommodate the journalist, Alaa Saad, and criminal investigators confirmed the incident, the court found no criminal intent.
It said the requirement that women be accompanied by a male guardian or family member was based on internal hotel rules “for protection and to prevent any practices punishable by law,” and did not amount to criminal discrimination or abuse, according to the reasoning for the ruling published by Saad on Sunday evening.
Journalist Alaa Saad was denied a hotel room as a woman on her own, Jan. 2026The prosecution also sought the application of Article 161 bis of the Penal Code, which stipulates prison and a fine of no less than 30,000 Egyptian pounds ($550) and no more than 50,000 pounds ($910) for anyone who commits or refrains from an act that leads to discrimination on the basis of sex.
Saad said she was disappointed by the ruling and its reliance on the hotel’s internal rules, even though “the law and regulations governing hotel establishments prohibit discrimination in any form, and all of that was submitted to the court, yet the ruling still came out this way.”
“The ruling is very discouraging,” Saad told Al Manassa, saying it effectively allows hotels to practice this kind of discrimination without clear limits or oversight.
She said women had long been told that the law and constitution protected them and that no official instructions allowed such treatment. But after taking the complaint to the Ministry of Tourism, the police, the Public Prosecution, and the courts, she said, “in the end we got nowhere.”
Saad said the ruling was dangerous because it “opens the door for hotels to do this boldly and with no one stopping them,” and called for clear intervention from the authorities.
On Feb. 25, rights and feminist organizations and public figures voiced their full solidarity with Saad after the incident.
In a joint statement, they said the incident violated constitutional guarantees of freedom of movement, residence, and equality, and breached the law governing hotel establishments. They said restrictions on women staying alone reproduce patriarchal guardianship, place women under constant suspicion, and deny them full legal capacity.
The signatories, including the head of the Journalists Syndicate, lawmakers, rights advocates, and civil and political groups, said Saad’s case had grown beyond a dispute over a hotel room into a broader battle over women’s right to exist safely in public space without stigma or surveillance.
