BAHAI TRIAL POSTPONED FOR THE FIFTH TIME
By Alexandra Sandels
First Published: December 25, 2007CAIRO: The Cairo Court of Administrative Justice postponed Tuesday its verdict in the two Bahai trials to Jan. 22, citing “continuing case deliberations.”
Postponed for the fifth time in a row, the verdict would determine whether Bahais could obtain official documents without affiliating themselves to a religion different than their own.
Many members from the Bahai community along with journalists and activists turned up for the session, which many believed would deliver the final decision.
“I’m disappointed. The plaintiffs are ready for the case to be closed. It’s been ongoing since 2004,” Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), told Daily News Egypt.
Shady Samir, a Bahai activist, said that “he’s become used to it” at this point.
“There seems to be a lot of debate about the case. Perhaps that’s why they haven’t been able to make a decision yet,” Samir told Daily News Egypt.
The first suit involves 14-year-old twins Emad and Nancy Raouf Hindi who have been unable to obtain birth certificates. Prohibited from enrolling in school without official documents, their father Dr Raouf Hindi had to send them to a British School in Libya.
The second lawsuit concerns Hosni Hussein Abdel-Massih, a Bahai student who has been ordered to leave his university studies since he cannot obtain a national ID card.
In order to obtain any kind of official documents in Egypt — including birth certificates, identity cards and marriage licenses — one must state their religious affiliation. Currently, authorities only recognize Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Passports are the only exception, and do not require citizens to list their religious faith.
Citizens cannot enroll in school, receive medical treatment, take bank loans, or buy a car without government documents such as identity cards and birth certificates. Young children cannot receive vaccinations against diseases without a birth certificate.
Bahais want to either write their faith as is or leave a blank space on the religion entry in official documents.
The Baha’i Faith in Egypt blog has thoroughly documented the crisis of ID cards for Egyptian Baha’is which you can read here.
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NabilE
7 January, 2008
This a fair report that sets the standard of journalism straight and exposes the issues clearly. Alexandra Sandels’ report is informative of the plight of Egyptian Baha’i citizens in their own country for no other reason than their different beliefs. This fair reporting seems to encourage other reporters in Egypt to be fair-minded. The issues at hand are not theological, but address basic civil and human rights. No citizen should suffer civil death in their own country – a fundamental human rights principle.
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