New Egyptian Constitution approved, gives women equal rights and protects Coptic Christians
Egyptian voters have approved a new constitution which grants women equal rights and extends protections for the persecuted Coptic Christian community.
Mohammed Morsi, Egyptian President supported by the Muslim Brotherhoodphoto/Forcalgeria via wikimedia commons
The Muslim Brotherhood had called for a boycott of the referendum, and turnout was variously estimated at 40%-55%, according to a Reuters report.
The new constitution “ban[s] political parties based on religion, give[s] women equal rights and protect[s] the status of minority Christians,” the Associated Press reported.
More than 20 million Egyptians voted in this week’s referendum on a new constitution, and more than 98 percent of them voted “yes”, the High Elections Commission announced.
Nabil Salib, the chairman of the commission, called the vote an “unrivalled success” and “an unprecedented turnout”.
It was still notably higher than the 2012 referendum on the constitution drafted while Morsi was president – about 17 million people.
The principles of the Sharia, which were refined in a constitutional article of their own in the 2012 constitution under Morsi, have now been moved to the preamble and have been partially reworded. Christians and Jews are allowed to have their own personal statutes. That means that all issues regarding family, religious affairs, and the election of religious leaders, for example, can be regulated on the basis of their own religious rules.
It replaces the constitution signed into law by ousted President Mohamed Morsi in 2012.
Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood boycotted the vote, saying the process was illegitimate.
Several revolutionary groups also refused to participate, and there were reports of low youth turnout, which Salib blamed on university exams.
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