Court Verdict to Decide Religious Identity of Coptic Christian Teens

Two teenage Christian sisters in Egypt are awaiting a State Council verdict that will determine their official religious identity. If the State Council does not rule in their favour, their formal identity cards will declare them Muslims.

According to Compass News, Iman and Olfat Malak Ayet, now 17 and 18 years of age, had their official identities changed from Christian to Muslim by their father several years before his death in November 2002. Their father, who had left his Christian wife, baby daughter and unborn child in 1986, had converted to Islam and married a Muslim.

Upon discovering the change of their official religious identities, the two sisters went to court to contest the forced change.

“How can these children be forced to become Muslims, when they have never practiced Islam in their entire lives?” Coptic Christian lawyer Naguib Gabriel asked the court at the third trial hearing on July 6.

The Christian sisters, who must first be issued their national identification cards in order to enter their final school examinations and then apply for university acceptance, now await the State Council verdict that will decide whether their formal identity cards will declare them as Muslim.

The final verdict on the two sisters' case, which is being tried before the Administrative Court of the State Council in Doqqi, is set for Tuesday, Nov. 16. However, the hearing is expected to be delayed for a week as it falls at the end of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan.

[Source: Compass News]




Kenneth Chan
Ecumenical Press