The 1938 Copts League called for abolishing the text about non-Muslims' recourse to their own laws in the new constitution and demanded approval to allow divorce and civil marriage as well as preventing the religious authorities from interfering in matters of marriage, divorce and freedom to change denominations.

The league also demanded that Copts would be allowed to resort to the Islamic sharī'ah on matters of personal status.

"The proposed text on non-Muslims' reference to their own religious laws would augment the church's intransigence with us and tighten its grip on Copts," said Rafīq Fārūq, the group's secretary-general. [Sāmih Lāshīn, al-Ahrām, Aug. 5, p. 5] Read original text in Arabic