I found this site with information on marriage in Egypt:

http://marriage.about.com/od/international/p/egypt.htm

I was interested to see that marriage is only legal if performed in a civil service at a marriage court.

Also, there's a three month waiting period if you've been divorced. I wonder if Liz Taylor ever married in Egypt?

Haha, I don't think so, Taggart. I wonder if the three month waiting period makes much of a difference? What I thought was even stranger was the waiting period for a widow...4 months and 10 days. First of all, why do they have to wait longer, and secondly...why 4 months and 10 days? I'm just curious as to the reasoning behind that.

That was an interesting article. I thought the "traditional" period of mourning for a widow was longer than 4 months and 10 days, but maybe that's a cultural thing. I honestly thought it was at least a year.

That is interesting. There must be a reason or a story there, with the term being so specific.

I'd have thought that a traditional mourning period would have been longer than that, too.

When I first saw the phrase "waiting period" in that article, I thought it was like a cooling off period before buying a gun.

I believe the 3 month waiting period is to make sure that the woman is not pregnant.
As to the 4 month and 10 day period, I'm not sure.

Also, the Egyptian government just changed the requirements for a U.S. citizen to marry in Egypt through the Ministry of Justice (making it a legal marriage in the U.S.) and it's not currently possible, though the U.S. Embassy website says that the situation is being worked on.
I'm not sure if this applies to citizens from other countries as well or if it's just the U.S.

I wonder if this is partially to stop "marriages of convenience" to acquire American citizenship?

Generally speaking, this would probably help the interests of those concerned with homeland security.

It's quite possible.
I've heard several different ideas as to why it's happened.
I'm not sure we'll actually ever really know. I don't think the government is interested in giving anything other than a perfunctory answer at best.

Governments NEVER give more than the perfunctory answer! LOL In fact, most of the time, when they DO give an answer, it's so construed you don't really know what they're saying. Or is that in the US only?

I'm sure it's not only in the United States. In Canada too, if you're trying to find an answer on an issue, which answer you get can depend on who you happen to ask that day.

Okay, that makes me feel better that it's NOT just the US that skirts the issues when someone has a question. How on earth do they ever get anything done if no one gives a straight answer?!