On 14 November, a bill calling for the elimination of religious designation on ID cards, quickly died at the committee stage.
ID cards see a Christian designation causing problems for approximately ten per cent of the population at police checkpoints, hospitals and workplaces. Christianity, Islam and Judaism are the only three religion options on the ID cards.
Sherif Azer, head of policy for the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, said that committee members in the constitutional and legislative committee as well as the religion affairs committee determined that the bill did not meet the requirements for law, which was an apparent smokescreen for the real reasons for the rejection.
Muslim / Christian marriage
Azer said the main reason the bill died was that doing away with the religious designation could allow a Christian man to marry a Muslim woman. That is illegal in Egypt, as children follow the religion of the father.
