WATANI International
22 March 2009
I am frequently asked whether there is any positive official response to the problems I tackle in my column. My usual reply is that, even though official response is a significant demand, it is not the sole objective of a writer or intellectual concerned with the grievances of his or her fellow citizens. Rather, the writer aims at awakening public conscience and opinion to an awareness of the problem and a collective conviction of the need to resolve it.
I thus feel under obligation to inform my readers of any positive development that may occur in case of the problems I tackle in my column, thereby letting in a ray of hope to dissipate the darkness and rampant frustration. As much as it is our duty as journalists to expose shortcomings in our society, it is an obligation to highlight the positive aspects.
Today I write, with great comfort, of the final outcome of an issue I had tackled more than once, and which is primarily concerned with freedom of belief, the issue of the Baha’i predicament in Egypt. Baha’is have peacefully lived in Egypt for ages, respecting the law and fulfilling their obligations as Egyptian citizens. However, their rights as citizens were severely curtailed if not downright denied because of their faith. Baha’is were deprived of their legal rights since they carried no official identity documents citing them as Baha’is. The Civil Register authority refused to issue them ID cards unless they could be cited therein as Muslim, Christian, or Jewish—the only three officially acknowledged religions.
In 2004 Baha’is took their case to court, demanding equality with Egyptians who belong to other religions. Sadly, the court proceedings as well as the press reporting of the cases were riddled with both direct and tacit abuses against the Baha’i faith. Donning the cloak of religious fervour, the abusers claimed the right to malign the religious ‘other’ in a way no religion can sanction. A ruling was finally issued in 2006 granting Baha’is the right to freedom of belief, to be cited as Baha’i in official documents, and to enjoy their full citizenship rights as Egyptians.
The Interior Ministry rushed to contest the ruling and succeeded in having it overruled, but the Baha’is appealed their case in court and, in 2008, the court ruled that their ID documents may include a blank field for religion. When two lawyers contested this ruling before the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC), the Interior Ministry would not implement the 2008 ruling and said it preferred to wait till the contest was resolved.
Last week saw the last chapter in this file, when the SAC issued its ruling that Egyptian Baha’is were entitled to ID documents that included a blank religion box. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights group described the ruling as one that puts an end to the governmental policy of forcing Baha’is to change their belief if they are to be granted the official documents that entitle them to all the services and rights of Egyptian citizens.
I feel absolutely comfortable with the SAC ruling, and hope it draws the curtain over a sorry scene of the citizenship rights violations suffered so long by Baha’is. I feel I owe these people a testimony that the Baha’is I met were by large committed Egyptian citizens who served their country peacefully and lovingly. They are definitely entitled to live in Egypt without discrimination or marginalisation because of their faith.
