Cairo: A family court ruled against the mother in a landmark paternity suit that raised a storm in Egypt, saying that she failed to prove she had an informal marriage with a popular actor who acknowledged he may be the father of her baby girl.
The TV actor, Ahmad Al Fishawy, refused a court order to undergo a DNA test to prove his paternity, but admitted in a television interview last year that he had a relationship with the mother, Hind Al Hinnawy, and suggested the daughter was his.
The case raised a fierce debate in Egypt over taboos concerning sex when Al Hinnawy raised a paternity suit against Al Fishawy in 2004, making public her intention to bear a child as a single mother.
Al Hinnawy said she and Al Fishawy who has also hosted Islamic religious programmes directed at youth had a secret, unofficial urfi marriage. She sought no money from him, but wanted official recognition that he was the father so she could get a birth certificate for the daughter, Leena, now about 15 months old.
Al Hinnawy, 28, said on Thursday she would appeal the ruling.
"I'm going to fight until the last drop of my blood because this is my baby," she said.
"I cannot understand, what do they want me to do? Should I live with a baby that doesn't have any ID? Officially she doesn't exist. There's nobody called Leena," she said.
On Thursday, a family court rejected Al Hinnawy's demand for recognition of Al Fishawy's paternity.
"The illegitimate relationship entails no proof of paternity," the ruling stated. Al Hinnawy did not "submit any proof that she had an urfi marriage with Al Fishawy," it said.
Al Hinnawy has said Al Fishawy took documents proving their informal marriage in December 2003.
