Issuing a new Personal Status Law for non-Muslims is being held up by divisions among the Christian churches in Egypt, according to an article
by Al-Monitor published on 1 July 2019.
For years, the absence of clear regulations regarding marriage, divorce and inheritance rights has led to serious difficulties. For example, if a Christian couple from different Christian denominations seek a divorce, it is currently Sharia law that applies to them. In response to such cases, in 2008 Orthodox Pope Shenouda III proposed that the Egyptian government should create a Unified Personal Status Law for all Christians. However, the three main denominations (the Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church) have not yet been able to reach an agreement due to differences in church doctrine.
Michael Bosch, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, understands the current disappointment: "The Egyptian Constitution does not take the various Christian denominations into account and states that there can only be one canon law for the Christian community. It has been over ten years now since Pope Shenouda III first made his proposal and there is still no agreement. The Personal Status Law clearly affects the lives of the millions of Christians in the country and - as so often in the history of the Christian Church - the main hindrance preventing an agreement concerns issues of doctrine. The current situation only adds to the many other challenges Egyptian Christians already have to face."
