Religious Pain in Egypt: He Got a Name…….
“There are plenty more who want to be inscribed indelibly as Coptic Christians. "The tattoo was once used to identify Christian orphans whose parents had been killed in war," said Girgis. "So they wouldn't be brought up as Muslims!" Ayman Raafat Zaki, 22, also bears a cross. He has been a member of St Michael's church in Cairo for nine years and he is now an altar boy. Every Sunday, dressed in his white robes, he helps lead a large Christian congregation. He chants readings from the Bible, as the young boys circle the church, spreading thick plumes of fragrant incense. And yet Ayman's overt spirituality - and his tattoo - are not enough to convince the state he is a Christian. Ayman's father converted to Islam so he could divorce his wife when Ayman was just five months old. Ayman's mother took her only child and fled the family's village for Cairo. In Islam, the father determines the religion of his children. And now - even as an adult - Ayman is denied by the state the Christian identity card he craves. "Since the age of 16, I have been living an anonymous life," he said. "In the eyes of the I state, I don't exist. They are trying to force me to become a Muslim by accepting a Muslim identity card. But it was my father's decision to convert. Not mine."……” BBC
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