Identity document
Other forms of officially accepted identification include the driver's license and the birth certificate. However, these are accepted only in limited circumstances and cannot take the place of the ID Card in most cases. The ID Card is mandatory for dealing with government institutions, banks or currency exchange shops. A valid passport may also be accepted, but usually only for foreigners.
Egyptian identification card controversy
The second case involved two 14-year-old twins who were unable to obtain birth certificates unless they converted to a recognized religion. While the father of the twins had originally obtained birth certificates when the children were born in 1993 with their religious affiliation as Bahá'í, he was unable to obtain new birth certificates which contain the national number. Without the national number on the birth certificate, the children were unable to enroll in public schools. Since the Supreme Administrative Court's decision in 2006 found that the government had the right to deny Egyptian Bahá'ís identity documents recognizing their religious affiliation, the EIPR modified the requested remedies in the case; the issue before the Court of Administrative Justice is whether Bahá'ís can obtain documents without any religious affiliation or without falsely identifying oneself as one of the recognized religions. This court case was also set to be decided up on September 5, 2007, but the decision has also been postponed to October 30, 2007. As with the other court case, Cairo's court of Administrative Justice also ruled in favour of the Bahá'ís, allowing them to obtain birth certificates, if they omit their religion on the documents. The EIPR stated that they will immediately seek to obtain papers for the twins.