Egyptian Christians oppose film tackling church stance on divorce

Christian lawyers in Egypt have called on the government to ban a local film, which they claim harms Coptic Christianity.

The film entitled “Wahed Sifr” (One-Zero) deals with the subject of marriage and divorce within the Egyptian Coptic Church. The Church considers marriage to be one of the seven canonical sacraments and allows divorce only in the case of adultery or in extreme circumstances, which are examined by a special Church council.

Bishop Morgos, media spokesman for the Coptic Orthodox Church, said, “Any film tackling an issue related to Christians should be first presented to the Church in order to ensure it does not promote misconceptions about Christianity," reports Gulfnews.

The film is based on the story of Mariam Naom, the Christian scriptwriter of the film. Naom, a divorced Coptic Christian, was denied permission to remarry by the Church and became pregnant outside of marriage.

The film's makers have denied that the film damages the image of Christianity.

Elham Shahin, a Muslim actress who plays the part of Naom, said, "The film provides a panoramic view of the status of Egyptian women Muslims and Christians alike. As far as the Coptic character is concerned, the film just presents the problem of remarrying in Christianity without suggesting solutions."

"Many Christian women are suffering from this problem. In my view, this film and other works that present Coptic characters have one thing in common: Christians and Muslims in Egypt are one entity and live in one society without discrimination,"

Rauf Tawfik, a Coptic Christian writer, said, "This film is realistic as it tackles a problem facing many [Christian] women in Egypt…The Church has the right to demand seeing the film and makes its remarks. But it has no right to seek banning it."