Cairo, Egypt - She looks down at the photographs on the table and sadness begins to seep through as she flips from one image to the next. These are pictures of Maria Sadek’s husband, who divorced suddenly after only two years of marriage when she was 24-years-old.
It has been 6 years since then and Maria wants to get remarried at some point in the future, but the problem is the Coptic Church she belongs to doesn’t allow it.
“I was the victim of a man running out on me and for the past 6 years I can’t even fall in love because it wouldn’t matter, I can’t get remarried,” Sadek admitted bluntly, closing the album.
This could all be changing for Sadek and other Egyptian Coptic Christians who have divorced.
On Sunday, local media reported that an Egyptian court ordered the Coptic Church to allow its followers to remarry, despite appeals by the Pope arguing to the contrary.
“By law, a Christian can remarry and the constitution guarantees his rights to have a (new) family. The appeal by Pope Shenuda III to prevent Copts from remarrying is rejected,” Egypt’s High Administrative Court said in its judgment, which no appeal can be made.
The case was an Egyptian Coptic man Hani Wasfi, who had complained against the church’s refusal to allow him to remarry after divorcing.
Wasfi won a lower court decision, but the Coptic Church appealed, only to lose again on Sunday, local media reported.
Like the Medieval Europe and the Catholic Church today, only a handful of actions can allow a divorce in the Coptic Church. Adultery and conversion to another religion or sect of Christianity are the only means of being allowed to remarry.
For Sadek and thousands in similar situations, the court’s ruling apparently will open the door for the opportunity to remarry, with or without the Coptic Church’s backing.
She is excited about the ruling, but hopes the Coptic Church will “come to their senses” and help “those people who have suffered hardships and want to live their lives.”
Christians in Egypt make up approximately 10 percent of Egypt’s 80 million people. The vast majority of the country’s Christians are Coptic and it is the largest Christian minority in the Middle East.
“We all look forward to the day when we can live our lives under God’s supervision and that the Coptic Church will grant us more freedoms to do that,” added Sadek.