The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) condemns the ongoing systematic discrimination against Baha’i citizens, which has been reinforced by a recent ruling from  the Court of Cassation. The court decision overturned a lower court ruling that had recognized the marital relationship between a Baha’i couple, following an appeal filed by the Ministers of Justice and Interior and the Civil Status Authority. 

The Court of Cassation ruling—in Appeal No. 39/94 (Personal Status)—constitutes a further extremely worrying step affecting freedom of religion and belief for all citizens, EIPR said. Its consequences are not limited to overturning the couple’s previously settled legal status, as recorded in the marital status field of their official identification documents, but extend to all aspects of social life for a segment of Egyptian society.

Failure to record the correct marital status in official identification documents creates daily hardships for Baha’is, including difficulties in obtaining pensions in cases of death, problems in inheritance distribution, and the inability to register as spouses in professional syndicates and health insurance systems. It further complicates dealing with schools where children are involved and with banks as couples. Additionally, it prevents non-Egyptian spouses of Egyptian Baha’i citizens from obtaining family residency permits in Egypt and, in some cases,  deprives Egyptian Baha’i mothers of their right to pass on their Egyptian nationality to their children when married to non-Egyptians—a right granted to all other Egyptian mothers.

EIPR holds the state’s executive bodies fully responsible for the daily suffering endured by Egyptian citizens across all aspects of their lives solely because of their religious affiliation, and reaffirms that Egyptian Baha’is are entitled to full citizenship rights.

In the case at hand, The wife had filed a lawsuit seeking recognition of her marriage under a contract that fulfilled all legal requirements. In August 2020, the Heliopolis Family Court issued a ruling recognizing the marriage concluded under a urfi (customary) contract in Case No. 322 of 2020 (Al-Nozha Family Court). However, the Ministers of Justice and Interior and the Head of the Civil Status Authority appealed the ruling. The Cairo Court of Appeal subsequently ruled that the right to appeal had lapsed in Case No. 5825/138. Despite the fact that rulings issued by family courts are considered final and not subject to appeal before the Court of Cassation, the government nonetheless filed a cassation appeal, alleging that the contested ruling violated the law. The Court of Cassation accepted the appeal, ruling against the recommendation of the Cassation Prosecution, which had called for its dismissal.

In its ruling, the Court of Cassation drew a distinction between freedom of belief and the legal effects resulting therefrom, holding that the Baha’i faith entails an encroachment upon the “public order” of the state and therefore may not be recorded in civil status or any official documents. It further stated that the state’s “public order” supersedes all legislation and procedures, overriding any procedural defenses or statutory time limits.

The Court based its ruling on the arguments presented in the government’s appeal submitted, which alleged that the lower court ruling violated Articles 2, 3, and 64 of the constitution. The Court framed marriage as a “religious rite” whose practice is restricted exclusively to adherents of the three “heavenly” religions: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. It relied on Article 2 of the constitution, which states that “the principles of Islamic Sharia are the main source of legislation,” while Article 3 confines recourse to religious laws in personal status matters to Christians and Jews only. The government’s defense further claimed that this did not contradict Article 64, which limits the right to practice religious rites—argued by the government and endorsed by the Court of Cassation to include marriage—to adherents of the three recognized “heavenly” religions in Egypt, even while acknowledging the absolute right to freedom of belief.

Drawing on the long historical trajectory that has shaped the administrative exclusion of Baha’is by the Egyptian state, the government’s defense invoked the 1960 presidential decree dissolving Baha’i assemblies, the 1975 Supreme Constitutional Court ruling upholding the constitutionality of that decree, and the 2006 ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court prohibiting the entry of the word “Baha’i” in the religion field on mandatory identification documents due to the lack of official recognition of the Baha’i faith in Egypt. On this basis, the government’s defense challenged the court of first instance for failing to verify the religion of the litigants before issuing its ruling recognizing their marital status. The cassation appeal stated:

“The respondents adhere to the Baha’i faith, which is not considered a recognized heavenly religion in the Arab Republic of Egypt, thereby removing this relationship from the framework of Sharia and divinely ordained rite[s]. Accordingly, the [lower court] ruling was issued in violation of Articles 2, 3, and 64 of the Egyptian constitution and in contravention of the public order of the Egyptian state, necessitating its annulment.”

EIPR emphasizes that this ruling is not an isolated incident, but a further step in a clear and deliberate policy pursued relentlessly by the state’s executive bodies in recent years and reinforced by rulings issued by Egyptian courts. After Egyptian Baha’is obtained the right to place a dash (–) in the religion field on official identification documents pursuant to a ruling secured by EIPR from the Supreme Administrative Court in 2009, and Interior Minister’s Decree No. 520 of 2009 implementing that ruling, married Baha’is were nonetheless unable to obtain official documents recording their correct marital status. This occurred except in a few cases in 2012, when national ID cards were issued reflecting correct marital status to Baha’is married under civil marriage contracts abroad—before the government closed off this limited avenue as well.

In an attempt to remedy this situation, a number of Baha’is petitioned several state institutions and national human rights bodies to seek solutions to the problems arising from the non-recognition of marriage contracts and the resulting impact on their rights and those of their children’s.

As a result, EIPR, acting on behalf of a Baha’i couple, resorted to regional litigation before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The African Union’s top human rights body, in April 2018, ruled that Egypt, through this policy, had violated the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights—ratified by Egypt in 1984 and thereby incorporated into Egyptian law pursuant to the constitution. The Commission’s decision obligated the Egyptian state to adopt the necessary measures to recognize Baha’i marriages and those of any other group under Egypt’s jurisdiction whose legal status does not align with the personal status laws based on the three recognized religions. Despite the decision’s approval by the AU Executive Council of African foreign ministers, the government has yet to implement it.

In parallel, since 2017, many Baha’i families have filed dozens of lawsuits before Egyptian courts seeking rulings recognizing their marital relationships. In some cases, family courts ruled in favor of the couples, recognizing the marital relationship based on the fulfilment of its pillars and conditions according to the most authoritative opinions of the Hanafi school of jurisprudence (in line with Article 3 of Law No. 1 of 2000 regulating certain personal status litigation procedures.) In other cases, family courts refused to recognize the reality of Baha’i couples. In both tracks—acceptance and rejection—the courts relied on Islamic jurisprudence and Sharia rules. However, in the first track, the pillars of marriage in Islamic Sharia formed the cornerstone of the ruling, while in the second track, the spouses’ religion constituted the basis for the ruling and the justification for rejecting the claim.

Since 2021, at least four Baha’i families—eight individuals—who had managed to enforce court rulings and have their correct marital status recorded in official documents have seen their status arbitrarily reverted to “single” in their national ID cards, either during renewal or replacement for expired or lost cards. When civil registry employees are asked about the reason for this change, they respond that a new directive has been issued by the Ministry of Interior prohibiting the registration of a “married” status for any person whose religion field contains a dash (–) in the religion field of their national ID card.

For years, EIPR has proposed to the state’s executive bodies—on several occasions, most recently during a National Dialogue session dedicated to combating discrimination—a solution that would allow for the documentation of Baha’i marriages, should the state persist in violating their right to freedom of religion and belief by restricting recognition to only three religions. The proposal calls for the Minister of Justice to appoint delegated notaries to document marriage contracts for non-Muslim Egyptians whose official documents bear a dash (–) in the religion field, thereby safeguarding the rights of spouses and children during the marriage or upon its termination, whether by divorce or death.

EIPR asserts that the government’s failure to provide a legal solution to this ongoing crisis is merely one component of a broader exclusionary policy pursued by state executive agencies against Egyptian Baha’is, who are an integral part of Egyptian society.

For further details, see: “Prohibited identities: State violations of freedom of belief,” and “Identity documents, marriage certificates, and burial: The missing rights of adherents of unrecognized religions in Egypt”.