An Egyptian Coptic activist demanded on Monday the government's recognition of the Christians' right to obtain official religious holidays as stipulated by the law.
"A decision was issued during the era of the late president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, invoking days such as Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday, which are Coptic holidays,
as official holidays for non-Muslim minorities," Mina Thabet, member of the Egyptian Alliance for Minorities said in a statement.
The statement added, "Some authorities plan to cancel those holidays, therefore we ask the cabinet to emphasize that these are official holidays, in order to end any
possible confusion regarding that matter."
Thabet explained that Article 21 of law no. 48 organizing issues of workers in the public sector that was issued in 1953 provides for granting non-Muslim workers official
religious holidays.
He added that a worker may work on these days as an additional paid holidays if necessary, or that he should be granted additional days-off instead.
Copyright © 2013 Aswat Masriya. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission
to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 130 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles
and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 2000 news and information items daily from over 130 African news
organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Lagos, Monrovia, Nairobi and Washington DC.