Egypt update: Court ruling recognizes Bahá’í rights
Written by ry on April 7th, 2006
Just in case you were beginning to think that it was ALL bad news for Bahá’ís in the middle east these days, the Egyptian Administrative Court has just ruled that Bahá’ís in that country may now actually identify themselves as Bahá’ís on official government documents:
The decision, announced on 4 April, “sent a strong message that it is the right of every Egyptian citizen to adopt the religion of their choice”, said Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Private Rights (EIPR).
The ruling is the result of a lawsuit filed by a married Bahai couple against Interior Minister Habib al-Adly in June 2004. According to an EIPR statement, officials from the Civil Status Department (CSD) confiscated the couple’s official documentation because it cited their religious affiliation as Bahai, an obscure offshoot of orthodox Islam unrecognised in this majority Sunni Muslim country. “The CSD refused to issue new identification documents unless the family agreed to identify themselves as Muslim,” the EIPR statement reads.
According to activists, the ruling in favour of the family was partly a result of intense lobbying efforts by rights groups. “This is a landmark case. We feel our efforts have paid off,” said Gamal Eid, director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information. “The authorities felt so threatened with exposure that they backed down and ruled in favour of the Bahais’ inherent rights.”
The situation of the Bahá’ís in Egypt has been discussed here before.
For those of us who came into the Baha'i Faith through the ever popular 
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thank you for the updates,this is such good positive news…we need.
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This great news. Thanks for letting us know.
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Thanks for this post!