Egypt’s school honors list excludes Christians: watchdog

Egypt’s Ministry of Education’s list of top-performing students in the 2025–2026 General Secondary Certificate examinations excludes Coptic Christians, amplifying concern among rights advocates about the marginalization of the country’s Christian minority.

The official top 10 list in each of Egypt’s three secondary-school tracks named only Muslim students, according to Coptic Solidarity, a group that advocates for Egypt’s Christian minority. None of the 30 highest-ranked graduates nationwide was Christian.

Previous years’ lists usually included at least one Christian student among the top achievers. That made this year’s complete absence notable, the group said.

Coptic Solidarity wrote that Copts make up more than 10% of Egypt’s population, and the result raises questions about whether inequality and discrimination affect educational opportunities and recognition for the country’s Christian minority.

Egypt’s Coptic community traces its presence in the country to the earliest centuries of Christianity.

In recent years, Egypt has restored churches damaged in past sectarian violence and granted legal status to thousands of previously unrecognized church buildings, the group noted.

Human rights advocates say those steps have left deeper legal and social barriers facing Christians unresolved.

“It’s not about a building, it’s about freedom,” a Coptic community member was quoted as saying by the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern, following a government decision approving additional church buildings.

Egypt’s constitution guarantees freedom of belief. However, Christians continue to face discrimination, with local extremist groups, government institutions and social pressures combining to leave many feeling treated as second-class citizens.

The threats include attacks on churches, protests over church construction, discrimination against converts and the abduction and forced conversion of women and girls, ICC said.

Large-scale attacks against Christian communities have declined compared with the years following Egypt’s 2011 revolution. However, localized sectarian tension persists, and authorities often fail to investigate attacks or hold perpetrators accountable.

Egyptian authorities continue to enforce Article 98(f) of the criminal code, which criminalizes insulting a heavenly religion and has been used to prosecute people accused of blasphemy. Conversion from Islam to Christianity remains formally legal, though converts face heavy social pressure, administrative obstacles and security scrutiny.

Egypt has removed some discriminatory material from school textbooks, but international observers say concerns about faith-based content in the curriculum and the role of religious identity in public education remain.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has promoted a message of religious tolerance and pointed to Egypt’s Christian heritage. His government has overseen the restoration of churches damaged in past sectarian violence.

However, the gestures have not produced full equality for Christians. Thousands of Christians still face bureaucratic obstacles to church recognition, and activists and converts remain vulnerable to prosecution under broad security and religious laws, ICC pointed out.

In an earlier op-ed for The Christian Post, Cairo-based legal researcher Mina Abdelmalak wrote that Egypt’s national football federation, founded in 1921 as Africa’s oldest, has fielded only one Coptic Christian player, Hany Ramzy, since then. Abdelmalak wrote that in 2018, former player Ahmed Hossam, known as Mido, proposed a 10% quota for Coptic players to a government committee drafting the country’s sports law.

The proposal was rejected by majority vote without debate, Abdelmalak wrote.

Lizzie Francis Brink, legal counsel for global religious freedom at the advocacy group ADF International, has said most persecution of Christians in Egypt comes from the country’s Muslim majority rather than the government directly.

Egypt’s south is especially difficult, Brink said, citing the influence of Islamist extremist groups, such as the Salafi al-Nour Party, which remains active in the region despite official bans.

Abdulbaqi Abdo, a Yemeni-born convert to Christianity, was arrested in Egypt in 2021 on charges including joining a terrorist organization and contempt of the Islamic religion, after he became involved with a Facebook group for converts from Islam.

ADF International lobbied for his release before the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Abdo was released in January and has since left the country.