WATANI International
10 July 2011
As a rule civil marriage is not permitted in Egypt, but there is an exception: when an Egyptian marries a foreigner. For the rest, the only permissible marriage is a religious one. In case of Copts, two copies of the marriage contract are signed by the groom and bride: one copy is kept in the Church records and the other goes to the Civil Register.
Last Thursday, a demonstration took place in front of the Justice Ministry building in Cairo, to demand that Egypt’s Christians be covered by a civil family law. Such a law would allow them to divorce and remarry outside the Church, which obligates divorce in only two cases: adultery or converting to another religion.
An event created on Facebook a month ago had rallied for the demonstration. The event stated: “We are a group of Christians claiming our rights to divorce and civil marriage with all due respect to the Pope Shenouda III and his supporters. Our call comes after the Pope, more than once in his sermons, said that whoever wanted civil divorce and marriage, outside the walls of the church, was free to do just that.” The Church, however, the Pope said, cannot go against the teachings of the Bible and allow divorce for any reason other than adultery.
No confusion
Ayman George, the coordinator of the campaign, says a civil law would promptly put an end to the problems of more than 100,000 couples whose divorce cases are currently stalled.
Recent changes in legislation concerning the personal status of Christians have worked to make divorce more difficult, George says. It was previously possible for Christians to change their sect and, accordingly obtain divorce and marry into their new sect. Not so any longer. All Christian sects in Egypt have now teamed up to demand a unified law for personal status affairs, meaning they have all decided upon the same restrictions to divorce and remarriage, thus closing the door before divorce based upon change-of-sect.
When a Copt files a divorce case in court, the court rules according to the notorious “1938 Code” which was drawn back in 1938 by the Coptic Community Council—a council of Coptic laymen—and which stipulates 14 different [lenient] reasons for divorce. But the Church does not acknowledge such divorce and refuses to condone it. There have been recent cases when Christians were known to convert to Islam only to be able to divorce or remarry.
Mr George has sought the support of rights activists and organisations. “The Church has every right to adhere to its principles,” he says. “It has no right, however, to interfere in civil issues. We demand our civil rights as citizens.”
From a rights viewpoint, citizens are entitled to civil marriage and divorce in a system parallel to that of the religious authority, but they may not merge or shuttle between the two systems. This implies that a couple may marry or divorce according to the civil law or according to the religious one; but they may not marry according to one, divorce according to the other, then go back and remarry according to the first law.
Irreligious
The movement demanding civil marriage for Copts surfaced after the January uprising, when voices calling for a civil State became louder. But what chances does this demand stand?
The human rights activist Mohamed Hussein holds a pessimistic view. Speaking to Watani, he said: “Issuing a law for civil marriage in Egypt has become near-impossible since the sway of the fundamentalist tide. Today, a civil family law is almost an illusion.
“Marriage is related to religion in both Islam and Christianity; civil marriage means a contract that can be validated and invalidated with no need to go back to the religious authority.
“Islamic jurisprudence prevents the marriage of a Muslim woman to a Christian man, or indeed one from any other religion. Christianity does not allow mixed marriages—meaning marriage between a Christian and a non-Christian—in the first place. In case of civil marriage, individuals may intermarry regardless of their religion. This means that it contradicts with religious teachings.”
Mr Hussein added, significantly: “Currently the religious powers in Egypt have the upper hand, and so it is far-fetched that this law would ever see the light.”
For his part, the legal expert Nabil Mounir agrees that the piety of Egyptians stands in the way of the acceptance of civil marriage. Thus, he says, public reluctance is in itself the major impediment before the passage of a civil family law. Not to mention, he stresses, that Christian clerics see a conflict between the religious sacrament and the civil law.
A civil right
All over western countries, where a vibrant Coptic diaspora thrives, civil law governs family matters. With this in mind, the lawyer Ramsis al-Naggar says the Church should not reject civil law, which is in force in Europe and the United States, and countless other places in the world. Mr Naggar believes that marriage is a human right and that the Church must react realistically to this, since it existed before the spread of Christianity and before the institution of the marriage ritual in the 13th century.
A civil marriage may be consecrated in Church if the couple wishes to do so, but they would then have to abide by the Church law where their marriage is concerned. Otherwise they would just have to stick to their civil contract.
The current regulations, he said, cause many problems. Sometimes Christians go to court to obtain divorce; courts apply laws that are not the same as that applied in the Church. The Church, however, cannot allow the individual divorced by the court to remarry since this individual is, in the Church’s books, already married. And—in the absence of a civil family law—the civil authorities are not authorised to conduct marriages. An insoluble predicament ensues: that person is married in the Church but divorced in the Civil Register.
As to the problem of mixed marriages, Mr Naggar said, the civil contract could explicitly ban them.
The religious perspective
Since a civil law, once passed, is bound to cover all Egyptians, the question which begs an answer is how does the Islamic establishment see it. Watani’s Georgette Sadeq took the question to Abdel-Moeti Qandil who is a former dean of the Faculty of the Fundamentals of Religion and is a member of the Islamic Research Academy. Dr Qandil explained that, for a marriage to be validated, it has to fulfil three conditions: the agreement of both the bride and groom, the testimony of two witnesses, and the publicisation of the event. Even though such conditions are fulfilled in a civil contract, he said, the only guarantee such a marriage would be a “secure contract” for a “partnership of love, mercy, and tranquillity” as stipulated in the Qur’an, is the religious contract.
“The Church does not recognise civil marriage,” a Coptic Orthodox source told Watani. “Marriage in the Church is a holy sacrament that cannot be dissolved except in case of adultery, as the Bible says. Outside the institution of Holy Matrimony, marital relations are tantamount to adultery.” So what happens to children born to couples married outside the Church? Watani asked. “The Church accepts and baptises all those who wish to join the faith, regardless,” the source said. “Children should not pay the price of their parents’ decisions.”
“All Churches believe that marriage is a holy and divine sacrament, and that any kind of marriage not performed within the frame of religion is adultery,” the Catholic Church spokesperson in Egypt, Father Rafiq Greiche, told Watani. As for baptism, the Catholic Church baptises all children whether or not they are ‘legitimate’. “Civil marriage is not the answer,” Fr Rafiq said.