Egypt's Ministry of Education Allows Baha'i Student into Exams

As the Baha'is of the world celebrate today the end of their yearly "fast" and the advent of their new year, the case of Kholoud, the young Egyptian student who was--because of belonging to the Baha'i religion--prevented from registering for her exams by the head of "Examination Control" in Cairo, captured the outrage of the Ministry of Education as well as the public opinion in Egypt.

As a result, Egypt's Ministry of Education overruled the administrator's decision and allowed Kholoud admission to the examination process for graduation from high school. Dr. Rida Abou Sareeyh, First Deputy Minister of Education, confirmed the right of Kholoud to admission to the examination. And that the initial decision to deprive Kholoud of her right to the exam had neither legal nor procedural basis.

Kholoud during a TV interview (Cairo)

Kholoud's colleagues in her school were also outraged by the decision of the "head of control" describing his behavior as "prejudiced." The entire student body was taken back by the way Kholoud was treated and they stated that she was wronged by that decision. They indicated that "no one has the right to interfere with another's religion." One of the students stated that they all knew that Kholoud is a Baha'i and that they all admire her, love her and respect her. They were indeed shocked by the way she was treated by this administrator.

The school's headmaster and teachers were also highly supportive of Kholoud's case and promised her father that they will ensure the prompt procession of her application and acceptance into the examination process.

This case garnered extensive media coverage, including a major television interview and newspaper coverage in Cairo's Al-Badeel and Egypt's semi-official Al-Ahram newspapers.

Officials in the Ministry of Education described the behavior of the administrator as "his own doing and not--in any way--in accordance with the policies of the Ministry." Based on the recent (29 January 2008) administrative court decision allowing the Baha'is of Egypt the right to obtain official documents, the Ministry of Education resolved the matter by asking Kholoud to fill-out another application form with dashes "--" entered in the religion field of the application.

On another front, since Cairo's Court of Administrative Justice decision to allow the Baha'is of Egypt to leave the religion field on official documents vacant, or to enter dashes "--" or "other" instead of identifying their religion, several Egyptian Baha'is attempted to obtain ID cards. In all cases, they were asked to return in ten days. When they returned as requested, they were told again to return in ten days! Thus far no Baha'is in Egypt have been issued ID cards since the court's verdict.

To this date, the Ministry of Interior has not shown any intention of appealing the administrative court's verdict to the Supreme Administrative Court of Egypt.

It is indeed refreshing to note that, unlike Iran's treatment of its Baha'i religious minority, Egypt is quite different--and one can be sure that it will remain so--not because of its sense of responsibility towards its citizens and towards the rest of the free world, but because of its basic nature as a civilized society that cannot overstep certain boundaries in human relations and decency.