A First: Egyptian students study parts of Bible, Christian faith in human rights class

Bikya Masr

"CAIRO: For the first time Egyptian students will be learning about the Bible outside of religion classes as the ministry of education decided to add verses from the holy book into its human right’s classes, in an effort to educate students on citizenship.

Al-Wafd newspaper mentioned on Wednesday that the second chapter of the “Patriot Studies” class will include Christian principles as the first chapter includes non-Muslim rights in Islam.
The class is being taught for 11th grade students.

The report mentioned that the cover of the textbook features a picture from the January 2011 uprising with the cross and the crescent intermingled in a sign of unity between the two religions in Egypt.
The textbook promotes equality of citizenship and the building of a diverse political system that will represent all of society, the ministry said.

However, the only mention of women’s rights in the book came briefly in the “women in the Christian faith” section, which highlighted the prohibition of divorce and having more than one wife as well as how the religion promoted equality between both genders.

There is a growing interest in human rights education in Egypt since the revolution and the textbook for the 11 grade comes as a first in breaking barriers of teachings about other faiths to Muslim students.

Coptic and Muslim Students are separated in the religion class as each study their own, yet the old textbooks used to insert verses from al-Quran in the Arabic language textbooks to explain grammar rules and classical vocabulary."