Christian sects in Egypt agree on unified law for personal status
Egypt, Religion, 4/21/1999

Christian sects in Egypt agreed for the first time on a unified draft law for personal status that ends the disagreements regarding divorce and remarriage.

The draft law specified only two situations for permitting divorce. The first one is in cases of adultery, in which the second partners can marry for the second time, while the second case is changing the Christian religion by one of the two partners.

This new draft cancels the eight other reasons conditioned by the current law and caused a dispute in the points of view between the Church and Egyptian lawyers, as the Coptic Church will only admit cases of adultery or changing religions as reasons for divorce.

Issuing a unified law for personal status has been a main Coptic demand for more than 25 years.

Samual Habeeb, head of the evangelical sect, did not approve this law, yet after his death Safwoit El-Bayad assumed the post as head of the evangelical sect and approved the draft law, which was presented to the Egyptian minister of justice.

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