Egypt's Minister of Education will forbid schooling of Baha'i children

According to a recent article in Egypt's Al-Sabah (Morning) newspaper, the current Education Minister, Dr. Ibrahim Ghoniem, who is also a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, stated that he would not allow admission of Baha'i children into public schools.

The interview was about his vision for the future of education in Egypt, and his intentions regarding the operations of his Ministry and the administrative structure of the educational system and his relations to the various authorities and systems relating to his administration.

When he was asked "what is the position of the Ministry regarding the 'sons' of Baha'is' right to admission to the Ministry's schools?" He responded, "The law of the nation, based on the civil status laws, is that it does not recognize more than three religions, Baha'i is not one of them, therefore their sons have no right to admission to the Ministry's schools."

When reading this, one is left in a state of shock, and clearly there is so much to say and do to prevent such hideous acts from ever coming to fruition, but one's first response is to try to point out the injustice and some of the obvious and flagrant facts:

1) depriving innocent children their right to education merely because of their belief, or their parents' belief in this day in a so-called "modern country" cannot happen without major consequences.
2) only using the word "sons" and completely ignoring the "daughters!" Don't they exist? Is this the new language to be expected of this esteemed educator who is charged with the education of Egypt's next generation? Where is gender equality? Or should we assume that "daughters" are exempt from this exceptional and enlightened vision of the Minister, and they will be permitted admission to his prestigious schools?

The Irony of Denial

Another comic by Mideast Youth clearly illustrates the unfortunate situation facing the children of Baha'is in Egypt in their desperate attempts to enter school. One clear observation was that the Ministry of Education official denying the admission of a child to school wrote her denial on an apparently disposable piece of paper. The irony is that this poorly presented denial requests a computerized birth certificate from the child.

The comic speaks for itself (click on it to enlarge):

Egypt's Ministry of Interior Will Not Appeal Ruling on Baha'is

Egypt's Ministry of Interior has announced, through its sources, that it will not appeal the 29 January 2008 administrative court ruling that allowed the Baha'is of Egypt the issue of ID cards and birth certificates.

Based on its interview with sources in the Ministry of Interior, an article in Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper revealed the news today. It states that the Ministry has approved the ruling and decided not to appeal even though the law permits it to do so.

Its opportunity for appeal had already lapsed since, under Egyptian law, the defendant is entitled a period of two months to file an appeal. The Ministry had elected not to do so based on its assessment of the merits of the case and that the ruling has provided the government with a reasonable option to solve this complex matter.

The Ministry will issue ID cards without religious identification indicated, or with "--" in the religion field. The Ministry affirmed that "this does not imply that it recognizes the Baha'i religion."

At this point, the responsible government agency will start issuing ID cards to those whom the ruling applies to. It did not research yet the possibility of granting ID cards to others who request no mention of religion in their documents.

The same article reported also on the issue of religious identification on official documents required for high school graduation exams. The Ministry of Education source stated that the students will be given the choice to be either examined on Christianity or Islam. The question of what the students will be allowed to enter--as religion--in the application forms remains to be resolved.

Egyptian Baha'i Student on TV

You may watch Cairo's TV program which was referred to in the previous post regarding the Egyptian Baha'i student (Kholoud), who was ultimately allowed to sit for her high school final exams. The program's title is "the Egyptian Street."

Her case is being presented and defended by a prominent Egyptian journalist, Mr. Nabil Omar, who is the vice-president of Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper. Mr. Omar is not a Baha'i.

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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.