Egypt Update: Government Appeal Set for Monday
Written by ry on June 15th, 2006
BWNS has a story up with the latest news from Egypt. If you’ll recall, back in April a lower court in Egypt ruled that Baha’is should be able to have their religion listed as “Baha’i” on all government-issued ID. Almost immediately the government announced that they would be appealing the decision and since then the issue has been debated all over the Egyptian media. Well, it seems that the government’s appeal will go before Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court on Monday.
From the BWNS story:
“This is not about forcing the Egyptian government or anyone to accept or recognize the divine origin of the Baha’i Faith,” said [Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations], “It is simply that Baha’is, like all other Egyptian citizens, are legally required to obtain government-issued ID cards. And without such documents, Egyptian Baha’is are unable to gain legal access to employment, education, and medical and financial services, and are deprived of freedom of movement.”Ms. Dugal said human rights organizations in Egypt and elsewhere will closely watch the appeal process.
“For Baha’is, the issue is simply a matter of obtaining the same rights granted to every other Egyptian citizen, and being allowed to live their lives in peace,” said Ms. Dugal. “But there is little doubt that the issue has taken on a wider significance in Egyptian and Arab society, as evidenced by the intense discussion on issues of religious freedom and tolerance that this simple case has stimulated.”
An Egyptian Baha’i blogger has been following the situation very closely and is blogging on the stories that have been running in the Egyptian press and the state of the Egyptian Baha’is in general. Not being an Arabic reader myself, I can’t comment on the accuracy of his reports, but he certainly seems to know what he’s talking about. Well worth a read.
Earlier posts about Egpyt can be found here.
(Update: reader Mahmoud makes a good point when he askes how I knew the egyptian blogger was a Baha’i. I just assumed. And you know what they say about assuming…)
For those of us who came into the Baha'i Faith through the ever popular 
