Christians upset as Egyptian government ignores Easter
Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly did not declare Easter an official holiday, upsetting many Egyptian Christians and human rights organizations.
CAIRO — On May 2, Christians in Egypt celebrated Easter amid tensions caused by the statements of Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly in which he did not declare the day as an official holiday for state workers.
On April 28, Madbouly announced the official holidays for the beginning of May, saying, “The government decided to consider May 1 a holiday on the occasion of Labor Day, May 2 a day off to prevent overcrowding for fear of the spread of COVID-19 and May 3 as the Egyptian national holiday of Sham al-Nessim.” Sham al-Nessim celebrates spring.
After Madbouly did not name Easter as an official holiday, human rights activists and politicians said he had disregarded real demands, saying basic religious holidays should be official holidays for all citizens.
Ishaq Ibrahim, a researcher on Coptic affairs at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, told Al-Monitor, “The state of citizenship should be based on equality among all citizens regardless of their religion or belief, even in terms of holidays, especially religious ones.”
