Taste Buds Swollen For A Week On Sides Of Tongue

appalling cultural backwardness of the Copts

Copts change confession to divorce

article Al-Ahram Hebdo, by

Mirande

Youssef



One issue that still rages, and so far has been solved: the personal status Coptic, governing matters of marriage and divorce and other links. At the initiative of the three main churches, including Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant, in 1978, a bill comprising 146 clauses, covering such topics as divorce, child custody and pensions. However, since its proposal, the project expects to be enacted. Currently, the Coptic Orthodox Church permits divorce only for adultery. But the novelty in the text in question is that the design of adultery is enlarged. For example, caught in the act no longer required as a single evidence of adultery. Adultery is recognized in other cases, such as contamination by certain sexually transmitted diseases. "The need to enact this bill is that Christians have not, until now, legislation that regulates personal status matters, which sometimes leads them to change religion to be able to use the Muslim laws. Consequently, the Church refuses to accept the verdicts of the courts, causing great confusion, "said Naguib Ghobrial, one of two lawyers who filed the lawsuit.

The only reference governing the personal status of Christians was a law passed in 1938 by the Community Council

the Coptic Orthodox Church, which allowed divorce in nine cases, including adultery, the change of rite or confession, the contraction of a serious illness by a spouse, imprisonment of one spouse, homosexuality, the absence of one spouse for a period exceeding 5 years and physical assault on the wife. "The problem is that the Orthodox Coptic Church under Pope Kyrollos VI (1958-1970) and his successor, Pope Shenouda III, refused to recognize this legislation because it believes the conditions of divorce are not fully compliant with the instructions of the Gospel

, "says the father

Morqos Aziz, church

Moallaqa

at Old Cairo . In the absence of a law governing personal status and against the intransigence of the Church in matters of divorce, many Copts change of confession and request of Muslim laws, like the law of khola (which gives the wife the right to divorce on condition of renouncing his financial rights). The problem with this draft personal status law that can hardly be reconciled with sharia. "One of the clauses in question is one that gives the right for women whose husbands had converted to Islam to get a divorce. While under Sharia, a Muslim man may marry a Christian woman. " Another controversial provision is one that gives children whose father converted to Islam the right to keep their denomination of origin to the age of 15 after which they are entitled to choose between the two religions.

According to Sharia, minor children follow the religion of the father. "This clause is very dangerous because even if children become Muslims after their father, chose at the age of 15 years to return to their original faith, they are treated under sharia as apostates," said Youssef Sidhom

, editor of the Christian weekly Watani

.

For some, the solution is to adopt a unified project for all citizens that is based on citizenship. On the other side of the bar, Islamist MP
Akram Al-Shaer

sees no objection to Christians enact legislation that affects them. "Before the 1950s, there were special mixed courts for foreigners living in Egypt. These courts decide cases according to the laws relating to these foreign countries. There is no problem that Christians have this right, "says Al-Shaer

It is the same for the camp of Human Rights, which supports Christians in their efforts. "The clause of the Constitution which stipulates that sharia is the source of all legislation applies only to Muslims. Christians have the right to their own status that reflects their religious instructions. It is their basic right, "says Hafez Abu Seada

, president of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights . Source: http://ffje.unblog.fr/2008/12/27/les-coptes-changent-de-confession-pour-divorcer/