As I was a judge and a head of a court of personal status, I experienced thousands of Christian families seeking divorce because of several problems.
However I can t give a number about how many of them even if some people may claim they are over 100,000 cases. The church promised to prepare a personal status law to solve many problems, especially as many women resorted to converting to Islam in order to get rid of their spouses.
The same reason was behind changing their sects in order to find solutions to their marital problems. In 1998, the heads of the Christian communities prepared a unified personal status law and sent the draft law to the Minister of Justice, but this project was hindered for 20 years since every sect rejects the idea of the other sects. For instance, the Catholic Church totally refuses divorce when the Orthodox Church accepts it in certain cases. Moreover, the Evangelical Church accepts civil marriage while the Orthodox totally rejects it. In all cases, the victims are the Christian people.
I do not think that the House of Representatives is the reason for disabling the law since this law belongs to the Coptic Christians and the Coptic churches only have to agree on it. Last May, all churches held meeting and said that each sect will have its own law, and this law has to be discussed in the Parliament.
I hope the law will solve many problems, especially the long-standing case of separation, as well as the expansion of cases of adultery, atheism, homosexuality, contagious disease and etc. The proposed law may also regulate solutions to the problems of custody of children whose father or mother decided to convert into Islam to allow the children to keep their Christian religion until he or she reaches adulthood.
Other issues may be included like the recognition of the adoption and equality concerning inheritance between male and female in accordance with the Christian religion. I hope they will finally agree for the benefit of thousands of tortured Christian families.
