By denouncing the inappropriate clothing of Christian women attending the Orthodox Coptic Easter sermon on April 30, popular Coptic priest Daoud Lamei provoked a week-long debate among the region’s largest Christian minority. The parish priest of St. Markos Church in the capital’s upmarket suburb of Heliopolis, who has a sizeable following on social media, is recorded to have said that, “as much as Easter rejoices the heart, we are also saddened by the women and girls who go to church in indecent clothing; I don’t even know why they go.” On May 6, Priest Lamei made a post on the church’s official Facebook, denying responsibility for the widely shared YouTube video recording of his Easter speech. The video recording further contains statements such as “the person who goes to church is supposedly God fearing but someone who enters church in indecent clothing clearly doesn’t fear God” and “any man who lets his wife wear such attire will be questioned before God.” Among Egypt’s predominantly Sunni Muslim population, Coptic Christians are considered to represent about 12% of the total 100 million, according to Arab News. Regular victims of often deadly Muslim…
Priest Sparks Debate For Telling Coptic Christian Women to Cover Up
May 10, 2019
