Nervous about revealing some of his deepest life secrets, Magdy, who asked that his last name not be used, spoke of how four years were spent attempting to fix the marital problems he had with his wife. Filled with bitterness, the 27-year-old textile factory machine operator is now trying to end his marriage.

But the Coptic Church will not allow Magdy to remarry unless his divorce is justified from a religious perspective, including in the event of adultery or if the Church decides to annul the marriage under specific circumstances. He is one of approximately 2,000 Christians — including Copts and other denominations — who are currently seeking a divorce. For most followers of the Church, a divorce is difficult to obtain; but it is the issue of remarriage that has remained relatively quiet — that was until Atef Kirolous sued the Church when it refused to allow him to remarry under its auspices.

In March 2008, the Supreme Administrative Court upheld a ruling by the Cairo Administrative Court that said the Coptic Church must issue Kirolous a remarriage permit based on an Egyptian individual’s constitutional right to remarry. But while the ruling states the Church must issue marriage permits to divorcees — allowing them to remarry inside the Church regardless of what body granted them the divorce — Coptic religious figures, who see remarrying as a form of adultery, seem unlikely to adhere to the order.

“We say that what God has joined together, let man not separate,” says Bishop Pola, the Bishop of Tanta and head of the Ecclesiastical Council of the Coptic Orthodox Church. The Ecclesiastical Council is the only authority entitled to resolve marriage disputes and preside over family affairs for the Copts, as well as the only religious authority issuing permission to marry in the Coptic Church. At the main office of the Ecclesiastical Council at the Al-Abassya Cathedral, desks are arranged in a line along the wall. At each one sits a religious specialist assigned to a divorce or family affairs case. In the center of the room, behind a huge desk and a computer, Pola oversees the process. From Pola’s estimates, the number of Coptic Christians who apply to the council for divorce and remarriage every year is between 450 and 620. In each case the Ecclesiastical Council carefully investigates the claims of every party to reach its verdict. Beyond adultery, the Church grants divorces only if the marriage suffers from sexual disability, mental disability or if someone was married against his or her will. In these cases, after the council undertakes an investigation, it will grant religious approval for the divorce, which is then pursued in civil court.

But even if a divorce is granted, the Church only allows the spouse found innocent of adultery to be eligible for remarriage. Furthermore, anyone granted a divorce in civil court without the prior approval of the Church, will also be denied remarriage. The Church’s hard-line position on divorce is derived from a passage in the Bible: “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery” (Matthew 19:9). For Pola and many other priests, remarrying is paramount to aiding in adultery.

So, how will the council’s procedures be affected by the latest court order? They won’t be, Pola says. “If someone gets a divorce order from the court and he or she wants to marry in the Coptic Church, then they should marry according to the Coptic Church’s rule, because these laws don’t come from the Coptic Church. But if the court order is against the Church’s regulations, then I will not be able to marry him again in the Church.”

Khaled Habib The Coptic Church will only issue a remarriage permit, such as the one shown above, if a divorce is deemed legitimate by its Ecclesiastical Council.

Despite Pola’s opposition, however, the court actually issued its judgment based on a regulation issued by the Christian Interdenominational Council in Egypt in 1938. The Personal Status Law, as it is known, which also covers Copts, allows divorce in a number of cases, including if the couple has been separated for more than three years, one of the partners suffers from a terminal illness or if one has left the other for more than five years.

“When these regulations were announced to regulate Christian affairs [in 1938], Christians went out to the streets to protest and declare their opposition to it,” Pola says.

The Church also rejects the 1938 Personal Status Law as invalid based on the claim it goes against instructions in the Bible. “How can we take orders to do something against the Holy Book? I don’t blame the judge; he is a judge with a Muslim mentality who is ruling Coptic affairs, which he knows nothing about. What do you expect from him? He does that according to the laws the Church refuses, so I don’t blame him,” Pola says. “[But] the Holy Bible is very clear when it comes to divorce conditions, so how can I be, as a religious figure, responsible for helping such a crime [adultery] take place? This will never happen whatever the price will be,” Pola says.

The solution, according to Pola, is in the Unified Law for Family Affairs for Christians, which was proposed to the People’s Assembly by a number of Christian denominations in 25 years ago. The draft law consists of 146 articles that outline procedures for Christian engagement, marriage, nullification of marriages, parental responsibility and divorce and separation. The draft would also involve large modifications to the 1938 Personal Status Law for Christians. In 1998, Pope Shenouda III proposed another draft of the law, this time to the Ministry of Justice, where it currently remains stalled.

At press time, the Ministry of Justice had failed to respond to a number of requests to comment on the subject for this story.

The law, from the bishop’s point of view, would end the conflict between the Church and the legal system. He notes that when all the Christian denominations in Egypt agree on a law to regulate their personal and family affairs, who could complain? “This law includes everything: divorce and marriage, alimony, custody of the children and everything related to the personal affairs,” Pola says. “They [The Ministry of Justice] didn’t reply to us for 10 years, while we see drafts of [other] laws start and end in days.”

Until then, the Church will remain steadfast against the legal system’s orders with regard to remarriage. “The court interfered in what is not under its realm of jurisdiction, because religion does not fall under the administration of the state,” says Ramsis Naguib, a Copt who has spent almost 30 years working as a lawyer, and estimates between 1,800 and 2,000 Christians (including Copts) apply for divorce each year. “This decision belongs to the people who are practicing the religion, not to the state. The state’s mission here is only to bless the decision, not to make one. So it is inappropriate for the court to force the Ecclesiastical Council to do anything.”

While the Supreme Administrative Court declared the ruling as final and obligatory to all parties, a loophole emerges. While the order compels the Church to issue remarriage permits, it does not necessarily oblige religious figures to preside over a Coptic marriage. “The court order doesn’t force the Church to marry the divorced individual,” Naguib says. “Forcing means [a priest] would have to perform marriage rites, and no court can force a priest to pray.”

He also thinks it’s unlikely a priest would go against wishes of his superiors in the Church by overseeing a so-called invalid marriage, thus keeping the ruling fairly ineffective. “The priest is a follower of his superior,” Naguib says, “and if the superior gave clear instructions that say even if this person has a marriage permit he should not marry in Church, I don’t think anyone will disobey the religious leader’s orders.” Similar to Pola, Naguib believes the Unified Christian Personal and Family Affairs Law will solve the discord between state and the Church.

In the meantime, many Copts have resorted to changing their denomination in order to avoid the Church’s strict rules on divorce. It takes only one paper signed by a priest of the new denomination to officially convert. Once the document is obtained, a person can ask the court for a divorce; it’s legally established that when a non-Coptic Christian couple seek divorce, the court ruling will be issued according to civil law.

Christians who want to be divorced are therefore paying thousands of pounds to change their denomination. On some occasions priests have been using this loophole to exploit the situation for financial profit.

One such priest allegedly scammed Magdy after he paid LE 2,000 to be christened under a different denomination. However, when he approached the court for a divorce, with the signed statement from the priest in hand, the court refused to accept his request — the priest was already well known by the court for his willingness to issue conversions for cash.

According to Magdy, the marriage suffered when his wife’s family began interfering in their personal life.

“She called me and told me, ‘if you are a real man divorce me, I love someone else. I hope I can prove that because if I can, I will get divorce’.” After separating, Magdy had no contact with his wife and did not see his son until the boy was two years old.

As the dilemma continues for Magdy and hundreds of other Copts in Egypt, there is no easy answer to their dilemma. Leaving the Church and changing denominations is certainly not an easy decision to make; many feel personally connected with Coptic Christianity and do not want to betray their beliefs. Some seek a court divorce instead of an annulment, and then re-marry outside of the Church. However, these individuals face social stigma within their religious community. While the Ministry of Justice has so far ignored requests to update the status of the Unified Christian Personal and Family Affairs draft law, there have been no signs it will soon move toward legislation. This puts the Church, the legal system and Copts themselves in a seemingly endless conflict with very limited solutions. et