In an Euronews opinion piece, MEP Nikos Papandreou urges the EU to press Egypt to end discrimination against the Baha'i community. He argues Cairo should honour its constitutional commitment to freedom of belief by granting Baha'is equal legal rights.
When my European Parliament colleagues and I visited Egypt, last week, we were delighted to strengthen our ties to a country with which we have a close and strategic partnership. Our connection is stronger than ever – underpinned by a €7.4 billion package, and underscored by last October’s first leaders’ summit – and I was glad to make the trip.
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The persecution of the Baha'i community
But one issue in Cairo left me troubled. The Baha’i minority religious community, some of whom I met during my visit, told me about the decades of discrimination and persecution they have endured from Egypt’s government and religious authorities.
The Baha’i Faith is an independent world religion, founded in the nineteenth century, whose central teaching is the oneness of humanity. Its several million followers live in virtually every country on earth, making it one of the most geographically widespread religions in the world. In Egypt there are estimated several thousand Baha’is.
The persecution Baha’is face in Egypt reminded me that Europe must stay true to its values even as it invests in its friendships. When the EU-Egypt Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership was formalised, in March 2024, it included a commitment to "promote rule of law, democracy and human rights." Since we are friends with Egypt, and because I valued my time with our hosts, we in Europe can and must be open with our friends.
Egypt is at a crossroads
Egypt is at a crossroads. Home to a rich tapestry of faiths, over centuries, Egypt's tradition of coexistence is now at risk.
Not only has the Jewish community diminished over generations, and Christians face longstanding and worsening difficulties, questions about equal rights for Baha'is and the viability of their daily lives are becoming urgent.
Baha’is are persecuted not because of anything they have done, but because of a 1960 presidential decree issued by former president Gamal Abdul Nasser, dissolving their institutions and confiscating their properties and cemeteries. Numerous fatwas issued by the Al-Azhar, the highest Sunni institution for Muslims in the world, have made matters worse over the years.
Baha'is have no legal recognition as a community
Egyptian followers of the Baha'i Faith have been part of the country’s social fabric since the 1860s – as doctors, teachers, artists and engineers, including the celebrated modernist painter Hussein Amin Bicar – yet today they enjoy no legal recognition as a community and struggle to get national ID cards, are denied marriage licenses, are barred from burying their loved ones, harassed and surveilled by the security services, and ostracised by a religious establishment animated by prejudice.
The distinction matters. Egypt extends legal recognition only to the three faiths it regards as Abrahamic – Islam, Christianity and Judaism – and even then not in a full sense. Some Christian denominations are recognised, but not all, and Egypt's roughly ten million Christians face real and sometimes violent persecution. Yet they can worship, maintain their churches, register their marriages and bury their dead according to their faith.
The Baha'is have none of this. Their exclusion is not merely social hostility but legal non-existence: they fall outside recognition altogether, and with it outside the ordinary machinery of citizenship.
The scale of the problem is well documented
When I met them at their only remaining property still in their possession, a Baha'i cemetery in Cairo, they told me that they need to now bury loved ones upright in the ground because there is no more space and the government will not allow them to have any further burial land.
Married couples are unable to name each other as benefactors in legal documents, with their children barred from inheritance; those denied ID cards struggle to study, work, or complete national service.
The scale of the problem is a matter of international record. In February 2026, three United Nations reports, from the High Commissioner for Human Rights and two Special Rapporteurs, documented the persecution and said it must stop.
Egypt's constitution guarantees freedom of belief
Addressing these challenges does not require radical change. All Egypt needs is to ensure that peaceful religious groups are afforded equal legal rights – reaffirming its own laws and statements. Egypt's constitution guarantees freedom of belief, President Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi has said that "the right to believe in any faith… is absolute and should be protected and respected," and Egypt's 2021 National Human Rights Strategy pledges to protect human rights.
Egypt is right now drafting its next five-year human rights strategy, for 2026–2031, and has just taken a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. That makes this the moment to turn words into action. Baha'i recognition could be written into the new strategy while its contents are still being decided.
Expanding protections for minorities strengthens social cohesion. When individuals feel their rights are respected and identities acknowledged, they can contribute to society in positive ways, which the Egyptian Baha'is told me is all they want.
Nikos Papandreou is a Greek Member of the European Parliament for PASOK, businessman, writer and cultural commentator.