EGYPT: Church and state

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A court ruling on marriage has reignited tensions between the state and the Coptic Christian community.

Egypt’s Higher Civil Court ruled that divorced Copts had the legal right to remarry. The church viewed the decision as an infringement on its religious laws. Coptic Pope Shenouda said he ‘would not allow legally divorced Christians to remarry as long as he is on this chair.’

There is no personal status law for Christian denominations in Egypt. They are governed by the same Islamic Sharia law as Muslims. Copts say the system fails to respect their religion, but in the case of divorce, many Christians oppose the pope’s rigid stance. After he was ordained in the early 1970s, Pope Shenouda did away with old Coptic bylaws that had allowed nine reasons for divorce. Since then, he has held that divorce should be granted only in cases of adultery. Many Copts resort to state courts for divorces, most of which are not recognized by the church.

The verdict comes on the heels of an earlier court ruling that recognized Christians who converted to Islam and then returned back to Christianity. That ruling was welcomed by the church and many Copts. But this one has raised the ire of church leadership, which has blamed the Egyptian government for neglecting Christian doctrines.

— Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo