This is not a joke, but a sectarian reality that dozens of Christian girls experience after one of their parents convert into Islam for any reason. Many times the father go to the Civil Status Authority and change the names of the children to Islamic names and their religion from Christianity to Islam, which is totally accepted though being against the law. Yet, in Egypt they believe that Islam is the best religion for the children.
The child goes to school and is forced to attend classes of Islamic religion or fail in the exam!
As an attorney, I have seen many cases suffer such scenario, including the case of Mario and Andrew whom former president Mubrak ordered that they don t take any exams of religion.
The problem is much bigger than this for girls who find when they grew up that their names have changed from Christian to Islamic names along with their religion. She goes to the court and start a battle to restore her name, and when she succeeds, the name of the father remains Muslim and her identity remains lost and strange.
I know that a number of senior officials don t accept such cases and they demand the Interior Minister to change that, but no response yet. I hope that equality and citizenship advocated by the President will be a good motivation to change that.
