Disgraceful denial for Baha’i children in Egypt

Bilo’s blog, Baha’i Faith in Egypt and Iran, reports that Bahá’í children in Egypt are being turned away from school, even though Egypt’s administrative court recognized the right of Bahá’ís to have ID cards back in January.

According to this story in Daily News Egypt:

Adel Ramadan, a lawyer with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) — which brought the case that was ruled on in January — says that schools are refusing to accept personal identity documents printed on paper…

According to a report published in Arabic-language daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, school officials claim that they cannot accept identity papers in which the religious affiliation field is left blank.

Ramadan says that the decision was taken in pursuance of the state’s policy of forcing people to issue the new computerized identity papers, but has the effect of discriminating against Bahais who either hold the old paper identity documents or have not been issued new documents following the Interior Ministry’s failure to implement the Administrative Court’s decision.

I very strongly agree with Bilo’s closing comment about this outrage:

This sad development must be seen by all Egyptians as a disgrace. Identity cards or not, these children belong in the schools, not the streets. How can a civil society tolerate such atrocities directed at innocent children? Unfortunately this is the exact same strategy that has been pursued in Iran against its children. Is this what Egypt–a nation endowed with so much great heritage–wants to be remembered for? One would certainly doubt that!

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Egypt, human rights, education, ID cards

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