Islamic judges strip Christian mothers of children

Muslim judges are defying Islamic law in custody battles involving Christian mothers and Muslim fathers to shield children from Christian influence.

Egyptian law's Article 20 st ates children younger than 15 should stay with their mothers. But, without fail, Egypt's judges are ruling for Muslim fathers if the mothers are Christian, Compass Direct News reports.

The judges are bypassing Article 20 and referencing a portion of Article 2 of the Egyptian Constitution: "Principles of Islamic law are the principal source of legislation."

On Sept. 24, an appeals court defied the statute and awarded custody of 13-year-old twins Andrew and Mario Medhat Ramses Labib to their father.

"The government's treatment of the boys' mother, Kamilia Lotfy Gaballah, constituted discrimination based on her religion and violated her right to equal protection before the law," the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, or EIPR, said in a statement. "The case also charges that the government violated the two boys' right to freedom of religion and contravened the state's legal obligation to protect child rights."

The father divorced his wife to marry another woman and converted to Islam in 1999. He then changed the boys' official religious status and applied for custody in 2006.

"Obviously in this custody decision, it is a flagrant disregard of the Personal Status Law, which ensures custody for the mother until the children are 15 years old," said Hossam Bahgat of the EIPR. "In this case the judiciary chose to ignore statutory law and apply their own interpretation of sharia."

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In another case, two sisters, Ashraqat Gohar, 12, and Maria Gohar, 8, were removed from their Christian mother in January. Even though the eldest daughter claims her Muslim father, Wafiq Gohar, is an alcoholic, and he has a criminal history, the girls were placed in his care.

The court agreed with the father's fears that his daughters "would cherish a religion other than Islam, eat foods that are banned in Islam and go to church" if allowed to remain with their mother.

Even when an Egyptian court ordered 3-year-old Barthenia Rezqallah of Tanta to be returned to her Christian mother's custody, police refused to comply. The police fear the child would be raised in a Christian environment rather than an Islamic one, Naguib Gobrail, president of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organizations, told Compass Direct News.

Now Egyptian human rights workers are seeking support from the international community to stop Muslim judges from using Shariah law to undermine custody rights of Christian mothers.

The EIPR has filed a complaint with the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, or ACHPR, a body formed by the African Union to oversee its 1984 Charter on Human and People's Rights.

Gobrail said pressure from the international community may be the only solution to the ongoing problem.

"Maybe a connection with someone of international character connecting with President [Hosni] Mubarak is the only way," he said, "because he has the authority to give orders to the National Assembly to issue a law to make things equal between Muslims and Copts, especially for the children."

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