Baha’is In Egypt Denied Marriage, Burial & Legal Personhood By Govt. And Religious Authorities, Say Three New UN Reports

GENEVA—23 February 2026—The “persistent and systematic discrimination” of Baha’is in Egypt has been exposed in a trio of United Nations reports, each released this month, criticising Egypt’s civil and religious authorities for persecuting the Baha’i religious minority over decades and calling for their rights to be respected.

Welcoming the latest UN reports, Dr. Saba Haddad, Representative of the Baha’i International Community to the UN in Geneva, said: “Three UN reports published at once, revealing and condemning the grave injustices suffered by the Baha’is of Egypt, demonstrate that this persecution is worsening and that the community is reaching a critical point in its suffering.”

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, exposed in his report the “persistent and systemic discrimination faced by members of the Bahai minority in Egypt” and called for its immediate end. Baha’is are “denied official recognition as persons before the law,” the High Commissioner’s report added, despite Egypt’s constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion or belief. The intervention follows a recent escalation in decades of systemic persecution through discriminatory policies and practices—underscoring the gravity of the situation and the urgent need for corrective action by Egyptian authorities.

Mr Türk’s report notes that, because they lack legal status and proper safeguards in Egypt, Baha’is are barred from registering their marriages, cannot participate in the cultural life of their community, and face other restrictions.

Baha’is have in the past tried to marry through civil unions outside Egypt, so as to live as married couples within the country. But they discovered that, within Egypt, the Ministry of Interior had issued a bylaw denying Baha'is the right to certify these marriages.

And in a separate issue, after the Ministry of Justice advised Baha’is to appeal through the courts to be allowed to change their status to “married” on their IDs, which for several years Baha’is were then able to do, it emerged in 2022 that the Ministry of Interior began blocking these appeals. Baha’is who had been able to do this in the past found that, when their IDs were due to be renewed, their status reverted to “single” on the new documents.

The human cost of the persecution Baha’is face in Egypt is profound. The child of a Baha’i man, married to someone who is not a Baha’i, has been denied education at several schools because of the father’s faith. A single mother of two faces deportation from Egypt and separation from her children; she has been denied citizenship because of her faith, despite meeting all the conditions and criteria set by the Egyptian government.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Nazila Ghanea, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Nicolas Levrat, also covered the situation of the Baha’is in Egypt in their reports ahead of the next UN Human Rights Council session.

Dr. Ghanea’s findings, which focused on the violation of funeral rights for minorities around the world, noted that the Baha’i Faith has been banned in Egypt since Gamal Abdel Nasser’s 1960 presidential decree. Baha’is have been unable to acquire cemetery lands since the decree and are barred from using public plots—leading to a situation in which Baha’is are forced to bury the remains of loved ones upright in overcrowded graves in a historic Baha’i cemetery.

Dr. Levrat’s report notes that Baha’is in Egypt are barred from giving their religion on official documents, violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt is a signatory. The discrimination Baha’is face “must be firmly condemned and immediately stopped,” Dr. Levrat added.

“Baha’is in Egypt need solidarity from the international community, civil society, the media, and justice-seekers everywhere,” Dr. Haddad said. “When UN officials and experts acknowledge at the same time the plight of Egyptian Baha’is, who continue to be deprived of their fundamental rights and freedoms, it means the time has come for the Egyptian authorities to stop yielding to reactionary religious elements and to undo decades of discriminatory anti-Baha’i laws and policies. Several countries in the region are taking commendable steps to promote coexistence and inclusive citizenship.”

The authorities have also recently increased arbitrary security interrogations and detentions of Baha’is.

Dr. Ghanea, in her report, also notes that fatwas by Al-Azhar, Egypt’s foremost religious authority, have blocked Baha’is from using public cemeteries and entrenched their marginalisation in Egyptian society. And in April 2025, eleven UN experts released a letter of allegations against the Egyptian government detailing the persecution Baha’is face. Egypt denied the allegations—a denial exposed as false by the community’s experiences.

“All three of these United Nations reports serve as a sharp reminder to the Egyptian authorities,” Dr. Haddad said, “and we call on the international community to echo the recommendations of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Special Rapporteurs, to hold Egypt accountable for its domestic and international human rights obligations.”

“The Egyptian authorities must also cease their latest surveillance tactics and attempts at coercion—designed to sow fear within the Baha’i community, and among the friends and neighbours of Baha’is—both of which are blatant civil rights violations,” she added.

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