On the 29th of January, the Cairo Administrative Court issued a verdict allowing Baha’is to list a “-” under the religion field in identification papers, or leave it blank. The ruling has yet to be implemented, but now and in a separate court ruling issued yesterday, a university student was allowed to obtain identification papers.

Hadi Al Qushairi’s education came to an abrupt halt after he couldn’t produce documents to the University of Alexandria detailing his position with regards to conscription as such a procedure requires the possession of National ID cards.

We sincerely hope that this ruling will be successfully implemented, as many Egyptian Baha’is continue to deal with previous false promises. However, there is enough cause to be optimistic and we congratulate Baha’is within Egypt on this much deserved victory.

Update: Unfortunately, a lawyer has launched an appeal to the ruling, which would only mean that it would meet the fate of the January 29 rulings and that its implementation will be delayed.