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Bahais get official document in Egypt

Written by Egypt News Sunday, 22 March 2009 Egyptian Bahai community celebrated yesterday the start of the 166th year since their prophet and founder of their religion, Baha Allah, started preaching
Dozens of Bahais gathered since early in the morning in Maryland Park (Heliopolis) to celebrate.

The park administration banned photographers and cameramen from the celebration. They justified this decision saying those people had no authorizations to film.
The Bahais said this was a new attempt to obscure them.

Dr. Raouf Halim, a spokesman of the Bahais said that the anniversary this year coincided with the Court of Cassation sentence declaring it legal to write nothing or "no religion" in the religion blank of Bahais' documents.
He explained that the community's celebration kicked off when the faithful started gathering from every zone to perform the prayer and declare the end of the 19-day fast from sunrise to sunset (19 days=a Bahai month).
After that, the Bahais went to the parks and public gardens close to their homes to celebrate and spend the day, he went on to say.

He pointed out that the Bahais submitted their papers to the civil status authority to be given birth and death certificates as well as ID cards. This way, he said they could live a normal life.
"We met with officials from the Ministry of Interior and they promised us they would give us these documents within five days" he added.
The Guardian described the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court in Egypt to leave the religion section empty on Bahais' official documents (or wrtiting the word "without") was an "important step towards freedom of belief and equal rights" in Egypt.
In his article, Brian Whitaker says the ruling of the Supreme Court on the Bahais (200 people in Egypt) is a victory for the Bahais after a five-year battle with the Egyptian government.
Even so, he added there would still be persistent problems facing those who change their religion from Christianity to Islam or vice versa when they want to change their religion on their personal documents, as "officials often refuse on the grounds that the state cannot condone apostasy".



EGYPT NEWS