“Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) has scheduled a symposium for early August 2006, to research the elimination of religion from Egypt’s new national ID card system.” [Source: Baha’i Faith in Egypt]

The requirement to state one’s religion on the ID card is particularly troublesome for Baha’is as the government do not officially recognise the Baha’i religion and therefore some Baha’is have been denied ID cards and the rights that come with them.

Elimination of this requirement whould obviously fall short of Egypt recognising a very widely spread and established Faith, but such a move may at least put a stop to the associated denial of rights.

The blog “Baha’i Faith in Egypt” also reports that the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights has recently filed a lawsuit demanding the Egyptian Government eliminate religious classification from ID cards.

Baha’i Faith in Egypt is a very informative blog with a lot of background information.