Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

Amid disputes among Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical Churches in Egypt on the Unified Personal Status Law for non-Muslims currently being prepared by a committee of members from the Ministry of Justice and representatives from the different churches, Head of the Egyptian Association for Human Rights, Najib Jabrā’īl, a lawyer closed to the Orthodox Church, submitted a new bill to the Justice Ministry to allow adoption among Christians.

 

The man told al-Sharq al-Awsat that the draft law takes into consideration that the Islamic Sharī‘ah bans adoption, while Christianity allows it.

 

He said that the law stipulates that it will be limited only to Christians, in addition to tough punishments for those who will violate it.

 

"The current laws ban adoption, which led to accusing a number of Christians of child trafficking," he explained.

 

The consecutive meetings held by the three Churches regarding the unified personal status law focus on two main points. The first is adoption. Although the Orthodox Church accepts it, Pope Shenouda suggests postponing it until passing the personal status law, while the other two Churches insist to include adoption in the personal status law.

 

The second point is the insistence of the Evangelical Church to receive recognition from the Orthodox Church of its marriage.

 

Safwat al-Bayādī, president of the Evangelical Organization, said the Evangelical Church will accept the new law only if it requires different Churches to recognize each other's marriage rituals, and if the section on adoption, which Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic Orthodox Church wants to remove it, is kept intact.

 

"The Orthodox Church recently made a survey on adoption among Christians, in which 357 persons out of the total 500 accept it," sources from the Church told al-Sharq al-Awsat.