ON 7 JULY Christian Copts are due to hold a peaceful sit-in in front of the downtown headquarters of the Justice Ministry to press for their demands to get a divorce and remarry without the Church's consent. The sit-in, to start at 11am, was initiated on Facebook. Egypt's Christians have been faced with severe obstacles thrown up by the Church which prevents them from getting a divorce, thus making them unable to remarry. The protest aims at changing the status of Christians in order to be governed by a civil law to have the freedom to choose whether to get married according to the church's laws. There are at least 300,000 cases filed in court by Christians seeking divorce. According to the individual who is spearheading the demand and who preferred to remain anonymous, "We are a group of Christians who are asking for our right to divorce and to have a civil marriage, with all due respect to Pope Shenouda III and his directives. Our call comes after the Pope said more than once in his sermons that whoever wants a divorce and a civil marriage outside the Church is free to do so." To many Christians, either converting to Islam or another denomination of Christianity to get a divorce and be able to remarry is their only solution.
