Editor’s Note: The following report by Safaa Abdoun was published on Daily News Egypt and because of its implications for the entire area, including Iran, it is reposted here.
Following years of legal battles and calls for state recognition, two Bahais issued their first national ID in which the religious affiliation field was left blank, instead of falsely listing Islam, Christianity or Judism as their religion.
Sixteen-year-old twins Nancy and Emad Hindy issued their ID cards after a legal battle which ended last March with Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court upholding, definitively, the right of Egyptian Bahais to obtain personal identification documents without stating their religious affiliation.
The Administrative Court in January 2008 had allowed Bahais to leave the religious affiliation field on birth certificates and identity cards blank.
The Hindys’ case was brought forward by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).
“Nancy and Emad issuing ID cards which implementation of the new ID policy is a welcomed [yet] a long overdue step which we have been working on since the court ruling in March,” said chairman of EIPR, Hossam Bahgat.
Read full article here: Daily News Egypt
Read a similar story at: Baha’i World News Service
August 19, 2009 2:01 am
It is interesting how diversified the anti-diversity situation is in different countries. The children had to go to school in Libya, but Egypt used polytheist monuments to symbolise the country on ID cards; Iran’s image for the world seems to be an architectural design by a Baha’i, while its government’s formal policy is that children known to be Baha’i should be transferred to schools with “strong religious identities.” Children have less standing with some ‘public servants’ than tourist attractions.