Egypt’s first-ever Coptic Christian judge to head the country’s highest court was sworn in on Wednesday, an appointment called historic by rights activists.
Judge Boulos Fahmy, 65, took the oath to head the Supreme
Constitutional Court in a ceremony attended by the president.
Coptic Christians, the largest non-Muslim religious minority in the
Middle East, make up roughly 10 to 15 percent of Egypt’s
predominantly Sunni Muslim population of more than 100 million.
The Coptic community has long complained of discrimination,
underrepresentation, and sidelining from senior posts in the judiciary,
universities, the police, and the military.
