Family & Inheritance Rights

The body of Egyptian laws regulating family relationships and property rights reflects traditional uncodified Islamic law more closely than any other sphere of the country's statute law. These laws deprive many Christian converts and Christians married to Muslims of the marital, parental and inheritance rights enjoyed by Muslim citizens.

Family and inheritance rights are governed by two different sets of laws - one for Muslims, the other for Christians. This reflects the ancient legal distinction between Muslims and dhimmis. Muslim family affairs are regulated by various statute laws, although reference can be made in the absence of any statutory provision to the uncodified provisions of Islamic law. The "Standard Family Law for All Christian Confessions in Egypt" of March 1979 applies to members of all legally recognized Christian churches. This code for Christians has been approved by the leaders of the Coptic Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Churches, though it has not yet been approved by the state. Whenever a case involves both Muslims and Christians, Muslim law is applied. Until 1956 the Muslims had their own Sharia courts and the various Christian communities each had their own confessional courts and judges to hear cases concerning family law. After the abolition of the Sharia and confessional courts such cases were heard by civil, non-confessional courts.

The most serious legal disadvantages suffered by Christians in family matters occur when Muslim law is applied in a religiously mixed family. Marriage between Muslim women and Christian men is forbidden by Muslim law. Conversion to Christianity is not an option for a Muslim woman wishing to marry a Christian, since such a conversion is not recognized by law. The only option open to such a couple is for the prospective Christian husband to convert to Islam. Muslim law permits Muslim men to marry Christian women, who have equal rights with Muslim wives in the case of polygamous marriages. The offspring of mixed marriages must be legally registered as Muslims and be educated in that faith. If the wife in a Christian marriage converts to Islam, her husband must do likewise or the marriage will automatically cease to be valid. When the husband in a Christian marriage converts to Islam, the Christian wife loses the protection from easy divorce and other Islamic customs offered by the family law for Christians. A non-Muslim cannot be a legal guardian of a Muslim. The maternal rights of a Christian mother may be terminated if a court fears that she may influence the child to turn towards Christianity in preference to Islam.

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Reported Cases:

a) Miss Shirin Saleh, originally a Muslim, notified the authorities in Alexandria on May 26, 1971 that she had become a Christian. She was baptized at St. George's Orthodox Church on July 2 and married a Christian a few weeks later. The couple were subsequently interrogated by the police about their marriage and faced with a law suit filed by the Attorney General in Alexandria. The suit claimed that the marriage should be declared null and void in accordance with the provision of Islamic law that forbids a Muslim woman from marrying a Christian. The claim was upheld by the Alexandria Court of Personal Statutes on June 26, 1972 and the couple were obliged to pay all legal costs. The couple presented their case to the Court of Appeal in Alexandria, which upheld the decision of the lower court on the following grounds:

1) Egyptian society is essentially Muslim and is therefore governed by Islamic law. Thus the Attorney General representing society derives his rights directly from Islamic law in cases of apostasy.
2) Christian married couples should normally be subject to the personal status law of their own confession, but only on condition that this does not threaten public order. As the Islamic regulations regarding conversion are matters of public order, Islamic law must be applied instead of Christian personal status laws.
3) The Constitution's guarantee of religious freedom is to be understood in light of Egypt's constitutional character as an Islamic state. (Alexandria Court of Appeal, No. 25/1972, June 9, 1974)

b) In 1967 a childless Christian women left half of her estate to a Christian charity in Alexandria and the other half to various relatives. One of her nephews challenged the will in court following his conversion from Christianity to Islam. He claimed without any documentary evidence that his aunt had converted to Islam shortly before her death and left her whole estate to him.

The nephew presented his aunt's Muslim cook and the cook's husband in court to confirm his claim. The designated Christian beneficiaries and priests and nuns who cared for the woman throughout her fatal illness testified that she had remained a Christian to the end. The court rejected the testimoy of the Christians on the grounds that they were infidels and awarded the Muslim nephew all his aunt's property in accordance with the principle of Islamic law that no non-Muslim should inherit property from a Muslim. (Cassation Court, Case 29/1970)