Update on Noor and Hana

About a month ago, we learned the story of Nour and Hana - two Baha’i children in Egypt denied access to education because they lacked electronic birth certificates. To date, Egyptian citizens are only capable of listing three religions (Judaism, Christianity or Islam) under the “Religion” field in official documents, thus leaving the Baha’i community without access to basic civil rights.

Now, Al Masry Al Youm reports that the private school allowed the two girls to be enrolled, following intervention by the Egyptian Initiaitive for Personal Rights and the National Council for Human Rights.

After negotiations, the school administration decided to enroll Nour again in the school and to admit Hana to the kindergarten, provided that they study one of the two recognized religions. This was accepted by their father. The school stipulated that the father brings the electronic certificates before mid-December.

Although el-Gamal deserves appreciation for his intervention to save those two innocent children’s future, the problem is still unsolved, not only because the two children could be dismissed in a few weeks’ time, but also because the problem concerns several other Egyptian Bahais. Indeed, administrative bodies insist on not giving them any official documents recognizing their religion.

These organs offer them to write one of the three recognized religions in the religion space in their documents, otherwise they will have no official documents. The bodies had taken official documents away from them that recognized their religion.

The gross error made by governmental organs is that they deal with the issue of Bahaism as a religious issue and adopts their views and take their decisions on the basis of statements and opinions by Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh and the Islamic Research Academy regarding Islam’s stance on Bahaism.

As far as the State is concerned, this is a civil and constitutional, rather than religious, affair

While this is a small victory, it remains a marked improvement and a significant step forward. The case had generated a lot of outrage and sparked important debates and served to remind us that by speaking out and taking action, we can make a difference.