How Egypt's religious institutions are trying to curb atheism
Egyptian court records show thousands of women have filed for divorce over their husbands' atheism — even though religious authorities maintain there are only 866 atheists in the country.
CAIRO — Recently released statistics from the Family Court affiliated with the Supreme Judicial Council, with offices across all governorates in Egypt, revealed that 6,500 women had filed for divorce, or "khula" — separation and returning the dowry to the husband — in 2015 over their husbands' "atheism or change of belief."
According to Article 3 of the Personal Status Law No. 1 of 2000, rulings with regard to divorce and separation cases are issued in accordance with either this law or the Islamic jurisprudence of Imam Abu Hanifa al-Nu’man in cases where the text of the law is not clear. Under this school of jurisprudence, a married Muslim woman has the right to obtain a divorce in the event that her husband has renounced his faith.
According to the second paragraph of the same article, the personal status of Christians is regulated according to Christian teachings, should the spouses be of the same sect or confession. In case of different sects, should the husband want to relinquish his Christian faith, the woman follows the same rules applied on Muslim women, and therefore has the right for divorce.
The court has yet to issue any statistics for 2016. It is still not known why the court refrained from doing so. The court might not have the right amount of data necessary for the statistics, or it does not want to shock the Egyptian community with the alarming rate of divorce because of atheism and change of belief.
