Re-defining “Official”
July 28th, 2008Several days ago, “Egyptian Baha’i” brought the world’s attention to the distressing story of Noor and Hannah, two little girls who were denied their right to an education for no other reason than their being Baha’is. While reporting on the story, we were struck by not only the Egyptian government’s reluctance to abide by its own law and guarantee all its citizens are treated equally regardless of gender, race or religious affiliation.
What struck us was the sheer absurdity of what the government considers to be an “Official Document”.
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So, what is the problem? do officials refuse to provide computerised birth certificate for the Bahai child?
Yes. When Egypt introduced the computerized ID system, the government decreed that only 3 religions can be entered in the “Religion” field - Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
Several Baha’i families went to court to protest that, and in January 29 a ruling was issued that they may leave the field blank. Now over 6 months later, the government has failed to act out on the ruling, and unfortunately, Islamist MPs have launched a challenge to the it.
Basma Moussa, a renown Egyptian blogger, has recently written a newspaper article expanding on their predicament, and a translation can be read here
[...] comic by Mideast Youth clearly illustrates the unfortunate situation facing the children of Baha’is in Egypt in [...]
O God! When these Islamic communities wake up from their deep prejudices mainly induced to them by religious leaders who read and interpret holy Qur’an by their own whimp and benefits based on conditin of 15 centuries ago?