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Cairo - For the first time in three years, Hussein Bakhit, a 20-year-old student from Cairo, can leave his house without worrying about being stopped by the police.

Bakhit will also be able to resume his studies for a degree in social sciences at Helwan Univerity, south of Cairo. He will be able to apply for a passport and, perhaps, to travel.

In short, as Bakhit put it, he will become a 'first-class Egyptian citizen' again.

Basma Moussa is similarly anxious to drive her car after many years. She will be able to go to the bank and check her balance. She will be able to ask about her aging mother's pension.

Bakhit and Moussa are among some 2,000 Egyptian adherents to the Bahai faith whose lives came to a near halt nine years ago, when the Egyptian Interior Ministry introduced computer-generated identification cards.

The ministry's Civil Status Department decided to stop issuing or renewing official documents for Egyptian Bahais unless they agreed to change their religious affiliation in public records to one of the three state-recognized religions: Islam, >>>