Egyptian Copts continue to fight for identity cards
Egyptian Coptic parents are tattooing their children with tiny Coptic cross to symbolise their Christian identity and community. The tattoo was once used to identify Christian orphans whose parents had been killed in war.
Parents tattoo their children because the Egyptian Government has denied Christian identity cards for many Copts. Identity cards carrying details of a person’s religion are required by law in Egypt for employment, education, and access to any public services. According to international rights groups, they are also used to discriminate in areas such as employment.
The allegations of forced conversion are hugely divisive in Egypt. In villages, where Christians and Muslims live together, there have been riots over the issue. A report by Christian Solidarity International and the Coptic Foundation for Human Rights documented 25 cases of alleged forced conversion and criticised the Egyptian Government for ignoring the cases.
But the report has many detractors who argue that it fails to grasp the realities on the ground. According to Youssef Sidhoum, the editor of a well-respected Christian newspaper, the allegations are always difficult to prove. Sidhoum states that often they are love stories gone wrong. Very often they are not kidnapping or forced conversions, but relationships between Christian girls and Muslim boys. He stated: “Sometimes it is their parents who say they have been kidnapped in order to hide their shame, when in fact the girl has married a Muslim of her own choice. They tend to exaggerate the cases.”
Despite the complexities of alleged forced conversion cases, Sidhoum and other Christians believe anyone wanting to change their official identity back from Muslim to Christian should be able to do so freely.
According to Peter Ramses Al Nagar, a lawyer who represents 3,200 Christians who are forced to live under a Muslim identity, there are cases where the Egyptian Government plays a direct role thereby forcing people to retain a Muslim identity card against their wishes.
Egyptian law states that when a person turns 16 years of age, they are eligible to apply for an identity card. He or she has the right to take papers from the church to prove they are Christian. There are several cases where people have successfully challenged the State in court. However, the Interior Ministry simply ignores the ruling. More recently, the courts have tended to side with the position of government lawyers, who argue that a return to Christianity is apostasy.
According to Human Rights Watch, such conversions are not banned under Egyptian law but the courts have viewed rulings that would be perceived as sanctioning them as potential offences against public order.