Egypt's Baha'is report shrinking burial space

Egypt's Baha'i community faces dwindling space at its remaining cemetery in Cairo, Reuters reported on October 13. Community representatives link the shortage to refusals to allocate new burial grounds.

Marina Samir, who leads religious-freedom work at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said former burial sites in Alexandria and Port Said had filled up or been reassigned. Requests for new land were rejected without clear written explanations, she said.

Egypt's government information agency and the two governorates did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. In a response to a UN report last year, however, authorities said they imposed no restrictions on religious affiliation and that sufficient burial sites were available.

The report also describes marriage-registration difficulties. Hanan Kamal El-Din, 65, said her documents list her as single although she married in a Baha'i ceremony 45 years ago. She said a court recognised her marriage in 2020, but a higher court overturned that decision in January.

A 2009 ruling allowed followers of religions outside Islam, Christianity and Judaism to put a dash in the religion field on identity documents. It did not resolve the community's reported difficulties with marriages, inheritance and family records. The report announces no new government decision to provide a cemetery.