Egypt Court

Frankfurt/M. (December 19, 2006) - The ruling of the Egyptian Higher Administrative Court in Cairo which says that belonging to the Baha'i religion shall not be noted in passports, is a violation of the freedom of religion as stated in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, claims the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR). After the ruling of Egypt's highest court of December 16th, the regulation remains which states that Egyptians can only have the three official religions Muslim, Jew or Christian noted in their passport. Baha'is have the choice to either negate their religion or to not obtain a passport. But without a passport it is for example impossible to open a bank account or to receive state medical care.

The married Baha'i couple Husam Izzat Musa and Ranya Enayat Rushdy sued for the correct registration of their religion in their papers of identification. As the couple insisted on the correct registration, they have been without passport since 2005. A decision for the Baha?i would have had a great impact for the general treatment of those having no or a different faith. But this ruling was in line with the hardliners which demand constrictions for non-Muslims and a favourable treatment of all Muslims. For this reason people converting from Islam to another religion cannot have this change noted in their papers, whereas e.g. Christians converting to Islam have no problems to obtain the new religion in their passports.

In this context ISHR mentions a similar case in Malaysia where the former Muslim and now converted Christian Lina Joy, is trying to obtain a change in her passport in front of Malaysia's highest court for years. Lina Joy's lawyer, Malik Sarwar, already received death threats.