"You will never ever get them" (beliefs, choice)

[arthra]

Trying to get an Egyptian ID card...

"I tried to obtain the national ID card. In the application, I wrote that my religion was Baha'i. The officer refused to accept the application and asked me to present my birth certificate. I showed it to him. It stated that I was Baha'i and so were my parents. He still refused to accept the application and asked me to apply in Cairo. When I went to Cairo, I met an officer called Wa'il who opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a big pile of documents and said, 'You see, all these applications are from Baha'i who want IDs. You will never ever get them.' "

—Nayer Nabil, Cairo

Source:

http://www.hrea.org/lists2/display.php?language_id=1&id=6439

[arthra]

HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS ISSUE REPORT ON EGYPT

NEW YORK, 16 November 2007 (BWNS) --

Egypt should end discriminatory
practices that prevent Baha'is and others from listing their true
religious beliefs on government documents, said Human Rights Watch and the
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in a major report released this
week.

The 98-page report, titled "Prohibited Identities: State Interference
with Religious Freedom," focused on the problems that have emerged
because of Egypt's practice of requiring citizens to state their religious
identity on government documents but then restricting the choice to
Islam, Christianity, or Judaism.

"These policies and practices violate the right of many Egyptians to
religious freedom," stated the report, which was released on 12 November
2007.

"Because having an ID card is essential in many areas of public life,
the policies also effectively deny these citizens a wide range of civil
and political as well as economic and social rights," the report said.

The Baha'i International Community welcomed the report.

"We want to thank Human Rights Watch and the Egyptian Initiative for
Personal Rights for calling the world's attention to the human rights
situation in Egypt," said Bani Dugal, the Baha'i International Community's
principal representative to the United Nations.

"The discriminatory practices identified by the report do indeed
gravely affect Egypt's Baha'i community, as well as others in Egypt who seek
to enjoy the freedom to believe as they choose, a right that is
guaranteed by international law.

"Our hope is that Egyptian authorities will now be encouraged to end
their discriminatory practices, which could be dissolved with the stroke
of a pen without harming the majority religious communities in the
least," said Ms. Dugal.

The joint HRW/EIPR report examined in detail how the limited choice
offered to citizens in declaring their religion affects the daily life of
Baha'is and converts from Islam, who also face problems under the
policy.

"While the Egyptian government's approach adversely affects anyone who
is not Muslim, Christian, or Jewish, and anyone who would prefer to
keep their convictions private, in Egypt today the greatest impact has
been on adherents of the Baha'i faith and on persons who convert or wish
to convert from Islam to Christianity," said the report.

Further, the report said, this "limited choice is not based on any
Egyptian law, but rather on the Ministry of Interior's interpretation of
Shari'a, or Islamic law. An Egyptian citizen has no option to request a
religious identification different from one of these, or to identify him
or herself as having no religion. If he or she insists on doing so,
authorities refuse to issue a national ID or related document reflecting
the requested religious identification."

"People without national IDs forfeit, among other things, the ability
to carry out even the simplest monetary transactions at banks and other
financial institutions. Other basic daily activities - engaging in a
property transaction, acquiring a driver's license, obtaining a pension
check - also require a national ID.

"Employers, both public and private, by law cannot hire someone without
an ID, and academic institutions require IDs for admission. Obtaining
a marriage license or a passport requires a birth certificate;
inheritance, pensions, and death benefits are contingent on death certificates.
The Ministry of Health has even refused to provide immunizations to
some Baha'i children because the Interior Ministry," the report
continued.

"These policies and practices violate Egyptian as well as international
law," said the report. "Logically, it makes no sense for the
government to say to citizens that they are free to believe what they like and
then deem it unacceptable when citizens respond honestly when the
government requires them to state what they believe."

Human Rights Watch is the largest human rights organization based in
the United States, according to its Web site. Human Rights Watch
researchers conduct fact-finding investigations into human rights abuses in all
regions of the world. It is based in New York.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights is an independent Egyptian
human rights organization that was established in 2002 to promote and
defend the personal rights and freedoms of individuals, according to its
Web site. It is based in Cairo.

The report received considerable media attention after its release. The
Associated Press, Agence France Presse, the BBC, Reuters, and the
Voice of America all carried stories on the report.

To read HRW's summary of the report, go to this link:

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/11/12/egypt17306.htm


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