Appeal Court in Cairo has refused to legally recognize the marriage of a Baha’i couple

 

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights has reported that the Civil Affairs Department of the Appeal Court in Cairo, Egypt has refused to legally recognise the marriage of a Baha’i couple who have been married for almost 45 years, on account of their religious belief.

In a verdict issued on 27 January 2026, the court upheld an appeal against the legal recognition of the couple’s marriage submitted by the Minister of Interior, the Minister of Justice and the Head of Civil Affairs Authority.

CSW sources report that while the verdict was initially kept confidential, activists in Egypt began raising the case in mid-April after the government issued an executive directive rejecting previous court decisions that recognised Baha’i marriages. The directive instructs the civil affairs authority to mark married Bahais as ‘single’ in any civil status documents. This was discovered when some Baha’is needed to renew their IDs or obtain other documents.

The couple was married on 5 September 1981 in a family ceremony, during which they signed an informal marriage certificate alongside two witnesses. In 2020 they appealed to the Family Court to register their marriage, and their appeal was accepted on 16 August that year.