Three United Nations reports issued this month have sharply criticized what they describe as “ongoing and systematic discrimination” against Baha’is in Egypt, warning that decades of exclusionary policies have pushed the community to what one representative called a “critical stage” in its suffering.
Saba Haddad, representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva, said the simultaneous publication of the reports reflects an escalation in the persecution faced by Egypt’s Baha’i community.
One of the reports, issued this month by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, pointed to “persistent and systematic discrimination” against Baha’is in Egypt, highlighting the denial of legal recognition and the refusal to register Baha’i marriage contracts.
According to the report, the absence of legal status has forced some Baha’is to conclude civil marriages abroad. However, Interior Ministry regulations prevent those marriages from being officially registered inside Egypt. The report also cited restrictions on the community’s ability to practice its cultural and social life.
In a statement, the Baha’i International Community said Türk’s report followed what it described as “an escalation of systematic persecution through discriminatory policies extending over decades,” adding that the cost of this persecution has become severe and that urgent corrective action by the Egyptian authorities is needed.
The second report, issued by Nazila Ghanea, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, focused on the denial of Baha’is’ right to bury their dead.
The report noted that since the Baha’i faith was banned by decree during the rule of former President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1960, Baha’is have been unable to obtain land for cemeteries and have been barred from using public burial grounds. As a result, they have been compelled to bury their dead in overcrowded graves within a historic Baha’i cemetery.
The Special Rapporteur also referred to fatwas issued by Al-Azhar, Egypt’s most prominent Islamic authority, which she said “have prevented Baha’is from using public cemeteries and entrenched their marginalization in society.”
In the third report, Nicolas Levrat, the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, criticized the prohibition on Baha’is identifying their religion in official documents. He said the practice constitutes a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt is a state party, and called for condemnation of the discrimination and its immediate end.
Haddad said that the acknowledgment by multiple UN officials and experts at the same time of the scale of injustices faced by Baha’is in Egypt underscores the intensification of persecution.
“Egyptian Baha’is need the solidarity of the international community, civil society organizations, media outlets and all those seeking justice everywhere,” Haddad said in a statement issued by the Baha’i International Community.
“When UN officials and experts simultaneously acknowledge the suffering of Egyptian Baha’is who continue to be deprived of their fundamental rights and freedoms, this indicates that the time has come for the Egyptian authorities to stop responding to hardline religious elements and to reverse decades of discriminatory laws and policies targeting Baha’is,” she added.
In 1925, Egypt became the first country in the world to legally recognize the Baha’i faith. Baha’is codified and published personal status laws governing marriage, divorce, inheritance and burial, and submitted these provisions to Egypt’s Council of Ministers. The Baha’i Assembly was officially recognized and registered in government records in 1934, according to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms.
In September, nine Egyptian human rights organizations criticized the government’s response to a letter from seven UN special rapporteurs affiliated with the UN Human Rights Council regarding the situation of Baha’is in Egypt, describing it as “rhetorical” and lacking any guarantees or future commitments to halt the violations.
On July 19, the Baha’i International Community criticized what it described as the Egyptian government’s disregard for UN concerns over “violations of freedom of religion and belief,” stating that “the lived experience of the Baha’i community in Egypt exposes the falsity of these claims and casts doubt on Egypt’s assurances.”
