CAIRO: The Coptic Orthodox Church has replaced the nine reasons for divorce originally listed in the 1938 bylaw with only two: adultery and change of religion.
The church also asked the government to issue a personal status law for Christians, something the state has been refusing to do since 1978.
The problem goes back to 1955, when the government issued a special personal status law for Copts. But in the same year the government abolished courts dealing with Muslims and Christians separately in regard to family issues.
Since then, family related disputes have been referred to the personal status courts and then to family courts. In Coptic cases, the court relied on the 1938 bylaw which stipulates nine reasons for divorce: separation for three years; desertion for five years; one of the spouses declared dead by court; imprisonment for more than seven years; madness; if one spouse is considered dangerous to the other as in the case of infectious disease; the change of religion or sect; if one spouse brutally assaults the other; taking robes; debauchery and adultery.
This would apply to Copts of the same sect and in case one of them proves they are of different sects, the court would use Islamic sharia to rule between the two.
When Pope Shenouda took office in 1971 he said the nine reasons wouldn’t be recognized and limited divorce to adultery and change of religion, saying that Christian teachings only allow divorce in the case of adultery.
Nabil Luca Bibawy, member of the Shoura Council, said that the secularist control over the Holy Synod in the 1930s is what led to the contradiction between the 1938 bylaw and Christian teachings that the Pope advocates.
Lawyer Ramsis El Naggar, who co-wrote the new amendments, agreed, citing powerful secular voices in the 1930s.
However, Priest Ikram Lamaey, a professor of biblical theology, said that those who put the 1938 bylaw better grasped the spirit of the Bible.
“The amendment of the 1938 regulation exposes the difference between the two eras. The 1930s was a liberal era, where the Synod had the independent authority to pass amendments that made Copts’ lives easier.
But today’s Synod is dominated by the Pope, who has the last word in electing the members, and thus they are loyal to him.
In 1978, and under the pope’s leadership, all Christian sects agreed on one set of bylaws, signed by all heads of churches in Egypt and the representative of churches presided from elsewhere. However, the government ignored the new bylaws.
In 1998, under mounting pressure of Copts complaining from personal status laws, the project was reconsidered. The then-Minister of Justice Farouk Seif El Nasr edited the bylaws and got the approval of the heads of churches. But again, the project was frozen.
El Naggar said that state refuses to issue a special law for Copts for “political not legal reasons.
Since then, church and state rulings have been conflicting when it came to personal status laws. Some Copts got divorce rulings according to the 1938 bylaw and others, who didn’t fulfill one of the nine reasons provided by the bylaw, got divorce under sharia by proving a difference in sect or religion.
Through the years, this didn’t lead to a confrontation between the state and the church. But last year, one Copt got a ruling from the administrative court that forces the church to issue him permission for a second marriage, after the court had divorced him from the first wife.
In response, the church refused to implement the ruling. In his weekly sermon, Pope Shenouda said that “there is no power on earth that can make the church issue decisions that conflict with the Bible.
Thus the church’s initiative to change the 1938 bylaw is considered an attempt to minimize conflict between church and state.
El Naggar explained that the amendments aim to synchronize court rulings with Biblical teachings, and thus the church would only issue marriage licenses for divorcees according to the amended bylaws.
“A number of judges advised the church to amend the 1938 bylaw . so judges could rely on the amendments in divorce rulings as a temporary solution until a new personal status law for Copts is issued, said Georget Qellieny, member of the parliament and member of the General Holy Synod. In an interview with Watany newspaper, the Pope said that “the state was preoccupied over the past year with discussing countless laws and all have been issued except one for Copts.
“I hope they give the personal status law the attention it needs, because it will synchronize judicial and church rulings. Even Islam calls for this.
The Pope explained that the church wasn’t involved in writing nor approving the 1938 bylaw. At the time, he said, the council overlooking Coptic personal status cases had objected to the bylaw citing contradictions with the Bible.
“Copts are a reality in Egypt, so why can’t they have a special law that regulates their personal status cases, El Naggar said.
Under the new amendments, one of six stipulated reasons would be enough to prove adultery in court, including catching a spouse in a “suspicious state with another man/woman; letters that prove marital cheating; homosexuality; and if the man asks the wife to have sex with another man.
