Rape in Egypt

There is a tendency in Egypt, though, to not report rapes due to the fear of social rejection as well as cultural reasons. Although that has recently improved significantly due to social awareness by TV shows[6][7] and by the president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi himself.[8]

Rania Hamid from Centre for Egyptian Women's Legal Assistance (CEWLA) says that no one tells that they have been raped, saying "Girls consider it to be quite enough that a few people know about the rape." Rania Hamid further describes the problem, that even if a girl were to reveal that she has been raped, the whole issue would evoke the issue of honour: "There are problems of honour. Sometimes a brother or cousin may kill her, saying 'you wanted this, you encouraged this, you’re not honourable, and what is that you are wearing?...' Of course it’s not her fault, but who are you going to tell that to? The girl, or society?".[2] Honor killings are not common in Egypt but they mostly happen in Upper Egypt.[9]

Honour crimes are not specifically mentioned in Egyptian law but are specifically condoned in some sections of the criminal code.[10] Statistics for honor assaults and killings do not exist common in Egypt but there are individual reports of them in rural areas and local media reports of their occurrence in Upper Egypt.[1]

Farah Shash, a psychologist explains that young boys are rarely stopped or opposed by their parents for molesting girls publicly, it's because the children always saw the same behavior around them. Shash further adds that "Often, families will just laugh".[11] According Seif el-Dawla who runs a center in the country told that "Sexual molestation and harassment ... is routine for women who come across police".

The Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR) has called the problem "social cancer" and suggested that dress code is not deterrent at all. ECWR carried out a survey in 2008 which found that 83 percent of Egyptian women and 98 percent of foreign women within Egypt had experienced sexual harassment at some time, and only 12% had gone to police for complaining such issue.[12] Over 62% of Egyptian men admitted harassing women, and 53% of Egyptian men have blamed women for 'bringing it on.'

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality on May 23, 2013, reported that an estimated of 99.3% of Egyptian women said they faced some form of sexual violence.[13]

Activists in 2012 alleged that the Muslim Brotherhood pays for raping women and beating men who gather to protest.[14]

In August 2020, Egypt's public prosecution was seeking to arrest nine suspects accused of gang-raping a woman at Fairmont Nile City hotel in Cairo in 2014; however, lack of action for six years was due to the fact that six men involved in the incident were from powerful families.[15] although that did not stop people from talking about them and the Egyptian media city produced a series called "El Tawoos" which talked about the families and their abuse of power and how they dodge the law, the series was under pressure to be shut down but many actors and Egyptians online refused to let the series get shut down and it continued to air and raise awareness.[16][17][18][19]

Later in May 2021, the public prosecutors announced the release of four suspects who were arrested with involvement in the Fairmont Hotel rape case. The reason for their release was cited as lack of evidence and contradictory testimonies gathered from the 39 people interviewed for the statement. The news was followed by criticism expressed by Egyptians on social networking platforms such as Facebook,[20] although the investigation is temporarily stopped to gather evidence.[21]

There are incidents in which military men had raped a civilian.[22] In April 2014, it was reported that the Egyptian police were using rape as a weapon against the political dissidents. In relation to this report, one of the victims had raised the issue during the first judicial hearing, although the victim's complaint was ignored.[23]

A survey of male and female students at Sohag University found an overall child sexual abuse prevalence of 29.8%, with the rate for females (37.8%) being higher than that for males (21.2%). Hugging and kissing in a way that disturbed the victim were the most reported type of child sexual abuse. 76.1% of the abuse was not disclosed to another party.[24]

Child rape as a form of punishment has been reported.[25]

An Egyptian TV series named Burying Girls Alive, shown on one of the satellite channels during Ramadan, shows an old man simply buying a teenage girl by taking advantage of poverty.[26]

The high rate of rape and abduction of Coptic children by Islamists has also been documented both during President Morsi's rule.[27]

• Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights
• HARASSmap
• Operation Anti Sexual Harassment
• 678 (film)
• 2014 Cairo hotel gang rape case

General:

• Feminism in Egypt
• Gender inequality in Egypt
• Women in Egypt
• Crime in Egypt

• El-Ashmawy, Nadeen. "Sexual Harassment in Egypt." Hawwa 15, no. 3 (2017): 225–256.
• "Egypt's sexual harassment 'cancer'". BBC. 18 July 2008.
• "Egyptian woman goes public about alleged police rape in rare TV interview". Fox News. 2010-08-06.

• "Egypt: Epidemic of Sexual Violence". Human Rights Watch. 2 July 2013.
• Hope turns to despair as Egypt arrests witnesses to alleged 2014 gang rape The Guardian, 2020