[The text of this press release is misleading. See art. 18 below. The text of the press release is not edited for spelling and other language errors by the RNSAW.]
US Copts Association
8116 Arlington Blvd # 155
Falls Church, VA 22042
Another Human Tragedy orchestrated by the Egyptian government. The government moves to abduct two Coptic children from their own mother and hand them to strangers, under the name of Islam!
Press Release... For more information contact Michael Meunier at 703-930-0120
Washington DC (4/26/2001)--U.S. Copts Association received the following story from Egypt.
During the year of 1990 Emad Ayad Bishay of Beny Soweif, Egypt converted to Islam to obtain a divorce form his wife Fayza Abd El-Shaheed Tawfiq. The divorce was finalized in 1991 with court order 113. The couple made up in July 1995 and Emad Ayad Bishay left Islam and came back to Christianity. The Holly Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church accepted Emad Ayad Bishay back into the church on February 1st 1996. Since the Coptic Church does not recognize civil divorces without the approval of the Holly Synod and since the Holly Synod never gave concession to the divorce, the couple were always considered married. On December 6 1996, Emad Ayad who had a history of heart problems passed away leaving his wife Fayza and two children (Nermeen and Ayman).
The death of Emad sparked a lengthy fight with the general prosecutor over the custody of the children, Nermeen and Ayman. According to court papers obtained by US Copts Association, the general prosecutor writes the following in the filling papers:
"According to court order 44 issued on Jan. 29th 1975, the child of a Muslim (boy or girl) should follow the Islamic religion, since Islam is the supreme religion among all religions"
"According to court order 44 issued on Jan. 29th 1975, and according the holy verse {the only religion accepted by God is Islam}. And, since it is legally agreed on according to Islamic Sharyah that {no authority of none Muslims over Muslims}. We, therefore, ask and leave the decision to the court to select the best-fitting Muslim guardian to take custody of the children Nermeen and Ayman Emad Hamdy El-Said (Emad Ayad Bishay before entering Islam)"
Since Emad’s death and for over 5 years now, his widow Fayza had been fighting the general prosecutor to keep her children. In spite of a certificate from the Holly Synod stating that Emad Ayad Bishay came back to Christianity and died Christian, the government still persist on taken the children away from their own mother and give them to strangers, just because their father made a mistake and changed his religion for few years.
The government used the above court order to justify its case and ignored another court order issued on 12/28/1998 (number 255 for judicial year 6) which stated that "if a chilled is born to Christian parents he/she should remain Christian until they have reached a legal age". The government, represented by the general prosecutor, also seems to ignore a court order that awarded the custody of the children to their mother Fayza Abd El-Shaheed Tawfiq on 7/3/1996.
On April 21, 2001, Fayza was called to court -yet another time- in order to fight a government that does not seem to want to give up and let these children live with the only mother they have known. Fayza is a nurse who provides for her elderly parents on the top of her two children and lives on an income of less than $20 per month. These court battles strained her, financially and emotionally, and left her fighting and struggling for her daily bread.
This case is a direct result of the application of article II in the Egypt constitution, which states that the Islamic law is the only source for legislation. Article II was amended in 1972 based on a recommendation from President Sadat.
We call on president Mubarak to intervene and stop this inhuman pursuit of these children by the general prosecutor. We also take this opportunity to stress our complete opposition to the modification made to the constitution in 1972 and injected Islam into the legislative process.
Will our Egyptian government leave Fayza and her children alone and drop the case????
* Documentations obtained in this case will be available on our web site http://www.copts.com.
