Yesterday morning I went to the Real Estate Registration Office to sign a notary form, appointing my lawyer. There, I was surprised to discover that I was required to prove my religion and the religion of the lawyer I wanted to appoint. And because I wasn't planning to get married to the lawyer yet, it never crossed my mine to ask him about his religion before this. All that I wanted was a competent lawyer for a specific task and I don't think it will effect me or the Egyptian state whether he was Jewish or Shinto or even an adherent of the sacred carrot!
Since there wasn't a law stipulating that a non-Muslim cannot appoint a Muslim, and a non-Coptic, a Coptic, I wasn't able to explain the situation other than that the Egyptian state forces citizens to discriminate against each other even when they did not want to do so.
I never though the day would ever come that I would turn around to a stranger and ask him for his religion.