WATANI International
11 January 2009
The current turbulent situation in
The two events mainly concern Coptic Christmas, which falls on 7 January and which President Mubarak in 2003 declared a national holiday. The President’s decision should have put an end to the troubles of many Christians who were denied the right to paid leave on 7 January.
However, a host of private enterprises remained adamant in denying Christians their right to leave that day or, at best, granting them unpaid leave. Minister of Manpower and Immigration Aisha Abdel-Hadi last week announced that all private enterprises should grant their workers paid leave on 7 January. I hope the announcement would put an end to all the forms of disregard or misunderstanding many Christians in private businesses were subjected to. No Christmas has passed by in recent years without my receiving a host of reader complaints of the humiliation they had to sustain for daring to demand paid leave on Christmas. It goes without saying that such practices have dealt a severe blow to citizenship rights.
I hope that the minister’s announcement would extend to cover the other four Christian feasts—Epiphany, Maundy Thursday, Palm Sunday, and Easter—which are not formal holidays but on which Copts are legally entitled to paid leave.
The same rule should apply to all schools and universities where, more often than not, Christian students are not allowed to absent themselves and where exams—especially in universities and higher institutes—are frequently scheduled on just these dates. Even when exams are not scheduled on these days, many institutes insist on scheduling them on the day right before or after Christmas, practically spoiling the feast celebration for Christians. Again, bitter and painful messages by Christian students have been sent to me over the past weeks in this regard, especially comparing with the generous holiday time granted in case of Muslim feasts.
Last week Minister of Education Yusry el-Gamal issued a decision postponing exams in primary and preparatory schools in Giza Governorate to 10 January instead of 8 January. According to the announcement, the decision was made to give Christian students an opportunity to celebrate Christmas. The minister later said that the decision would cover the entire country and heaped praise on NGOs for raising the issue.
These two steps at the outset of 2009 have served to create an atmosphere of optimism that the year would see more in terms of citizenship rights and political reform. I hope they would mark the end to the setbacks and frustrations of 2008. And I hope that the wonderful message relayed by Dr Gamal would reach the Minster of Higher Education Hany Helal and our universities and higher institutes.
