The Cabinet approved the draft family law for Egyptian Christians during its meeting today, Wednesday, in line with presidential directives to expedite the completion of personal status laws.
According to a Cabinet statement, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly noted that the draft family laws for Christians and Muslims, along with the Family Support Fund, will be referred to the House of Representatives in weekly succession.
The Cabinet emphasized that the draft personal status law for Christians resulted from 35 meetings held by a specialized legal committee through April 20, 2026, which included representatives from the Ministry of Justice and all Christian denominations in Egypt.
Meanwhile, Minister of Justice Mahmoud El-Sherif confirmed that the ministry conducted an extensive societal dialogue to present the draft to members of the relevant denominations, resulting in consensus on the majority of substantive and procedural provisions.
According to the statement, preparations included soliciting the opinions of the Supreme Judicial Council, the National Council for Human Rights, the National Council for Women, and the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, to ensure the texts align with constitutional obligations.
El-Sherif explained that the new law, for the first time, consolidates the “scattered” rules regulating Christian family affairs into a single legislative instrument with the status of a law, after they had been dispersed across six different legislative texts.
The Minister of Justice pointed out that the drafting adopted the principle of equality in matters not based on doctrine, such as post-divorce provisions for visitation, custody, rights to the marital home, and educational guardianship; these were drafted in parallel with the corresponding provisions in the draft personal status law for Muslims.
The provisions of the draft law apply to followers of the Coptic Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Protestant, and Catholic denominations, while providing specific provisions for each denomination in accordance with its doctrine on core matters.
The draft comprehensively regulates engagement, marriage, grounds for divorce and annulment, civil dissolution for some denominations, custody, visitation, hosting, educational guardianship, lineage, missing persons, and inheritance.
In the same context, MP Freddy El-Bayadi revealed that the Cabinet’s approval comes approximately one year after the draft’s completion, with sign-off from the six aforementioned Egyptian churches. He noted that the new bill introduces resolutions for divorce, which remains one of the greatest crises facing Egyptian Christians.
During an event on the personal status law organized by the New Woman Foundation onTuesday, El-Bayadi explained that the draft law for Christians closes the door on “changing denomination,” a practice that has long been used as a backdoor to divorce. He added that it includes clauses for the annulment of marriage in cases of fraud or deception, and it facilitates proving adultery through electronic messages and phone calls.
