Secularism, Family Law, and Gender Inequality

SOME OF THE most common issues that ignite Muslim-Christian violence in Egypt today involve rumors about interfaith romance or marriage, abducted women, and religious conversion.¹ All three figured prominently in a controversy that erupted in the working-class neighborhood of Imbaba in May 2011 (three months after the overthrow of the Mubarak regime) that left two churches burned, twelve people dead, and scores injured. It all started when a Muslim man came looking for his wife in Imbaba, where her Coptic family lived. He claimed she had converted to Islam the previous year, but then had suddenly disappeared.² The man alleged