Coptic problems with divorce and remarriage

WATANI International

19 August 2011

In what is the fourth demonstration within the last couple of months, more than 100 Copts who have divorce and remarriage cases pending with the Coptic Orthodox Church’s Clerical Council staged a demonstration in front of the St Mark Cathedral in Cairo. They were protesting what they claim is the overly strict rules of the Coptic Church in dissolving marriages, as well as the undue procrastination by the council—the authority charged with ruling in marriage annulment, divorce, and remarriage permits—in seeing their cases. Many denounced “the harsh treatment” they were meted at the hands of the clergy on the council. “They treat us as though we are criminals,” was a claim reiterated by several of the demonstrators.

The demonstrators have also demanded that Anba Pola, who heads the Clerical Council, should be dismissed. So far, the council is frozen according to a decision by Pope Shenouda III.

Collective resignation

Last week, the protestors threated they would tender a “collective resignation” from the Coptic Orthodox Church. They set a deadline of 15 September for the Church to respond to their demands, otherwise they would resign.

Nader al-Sierafi, told Watani that he has been separated from his wife for the past six years, and wished to end his marriage. “The Clerical Council insists the marriage can only be dissolved in case of adultery,” he said.

The collective resignation, Sierafi said, would involve 3,000 Copts, and the Church will be informed of it through a court official. This, he says, would give him and the other Copts the right to divorce and remarry since, as Egyptians who belong to no specific sect, the court would have to apply the rules of Islamic sharia to their cases.

Another protestor who preferred to remain anonymous told Watani he was denied a divorce even though his wife and mother-in-law turned his life into a living hell, and extorted money of him. He tried to meet Anba Pola to explain the matter to him, but in vain.

Other Copts complain of having been granted divorce by the courts, but the divorce rulings were not acknowledged by the Church since they were granted for reasons other than adultery or conversion. Bushra Badawy Shehata from Assuit, Upper Egypt, says she has been trying to get a divorce for some 15 years now, but could not. “I was treated very badly by the priests on the Council. Even so, I will not convert to remarry,” she cried.

Others, still, complain of the difficulty of proving adultery.

Mamdouh Lamie, a farm labourer from Assiut, told Watani that he is married to a woman who left him seven years ago to live with another man, a Muslim, and took along his three sons with her. “When I filed a notification against her to prove adultery,” Lamie said, “she ran away from where she lived to an unknown address.”

Demand for civil marriage

Maged Hanna, a lawyer and expert in the Coptic affairs, told Watani that Coptic Orthodox Christians are not employees of the Church in order for them to ‘resign’, they can give up their membership in their Church, but not resign. The Constitution stipulates the freedom of belief, Hanna says, meaning these Copts are free to join any other Christian sect, in which case they will be legally under Islamic sharia and they can divorce and remarry as they wish—but not in Church.

The Coptic Orthodox Church allows divorce only in cases of adultery or conversion, and annuls marriages in case they were based on any form of material or moral dishonesty. The wronged party is given a remarriage permit.

Cases usually take a long time until they are resolved, since it is not always possible to prove allegations. Some Copts are known to have resorted to conversion in order to get rid of agonising marriages.

The Church insists it cannot go against Biblical teachings; Pope Shenouda III has repeatedly said that anyone who desires to dissolve his or her marriage nonetheless may resort to civil marriage, divorce, and remarriage.

In Egypt, however, civil marriage may only be contracted between an Egyptian and a foreigner. Until the law is changed to allow civil marriage between Egyptians, religious marriage is the only option available.

Copts with stormy marriages thus find themselves cornered, and have to fight on two fronts. First, they have demanded a civil family law for Egyptians, but this does not appear to have a chance of materialising any time soon since Islamists vehemently reject the idea of a family law that does not accord with Islamic sharia. Second, they demand that the Church should adopt more lenient marriage laws, which the Church sees as a violation of Christian principles.