By Coptic Solidarity –
Earlier this year, Coptic Solidarity published an eye-opening report, Hidden Crimes, Public Deception: The Epidemic of Abductions and Forced Disappearance of Coptic Women and Girls.
As if to exemplify the findings of this report, three more Coptic women disappeared in just one recent week. As our report explains, the only time women and minor girls are returned is after much international publicity. Coptic Solidarity has been working to end these crimes against Coptic women for over a decade. Our consistent efforts have resulted in greater awareness of these crimes with various governments, the United Nations, and policy makers worldwide. This past week we created awareness of the three cases and advocated behind the scenes for the women to be returned. The three women were all returned, but not a single known perpetrator or accomplice was arrested or prosecuted. This defies all logic.
Case-1: On February 23, a 19-year-old (born March 1, 2006) Coptic university student from Sohag, Marina Khalaf Greiss, disappeared after leaving for university. Anwar Mohamed Al-Sayed (a truck driver) had targeted Marina for marriage since she was 16 and even threatened her Father by text message on October 4, 2023, in an effort to marry her.
Marina’s Muslim friend, Nada Ahmad Aref, attended the same college. Nada’s dad, an auto mechanic, would drop them off at university, and Marina’s dad would bring them home. On February 23, 2025, after Marina was picked up to go to school, she disappeared. Typically, 24 hours need to pass before the family can file a police report, so the report was filed on the next day (Administrative report # 1305 – Sohag – Feb 24, 2025).
Marina was taken to the Sharia Association (الجمعية الشرعية) by Ahmad Aref and his daughter Nada where together with others, they ganged up on her and pressured her to become Muslim & wear the niqab, and told her that she had to marry Anwar. Marina refused and tried to negotiate, cry and scream, but was overpowered and carried to the nearby police station, where Colonel Ahmad Tarkhan was waiting for her. Tarkhan (Director of the Coptic file in the National Security Department in Sohag- Part of the Egyptian Ministry of Interior), tried to intimidate Marina and took her ID, then brought other men who took her to Aswan where Anwar and his cousin, Mohamed Shokry Al-Khalil, 25, were waiting for her. Marina was forced to become Anwar’s concubine and was told that she was now Muslim and married. She was also forced to sign an Islamization certificate dated February 24, 2025, with a new non-Christian name Ghazal Khalaf Bekhit Ibrahim. She was abused over a period of three days and was made to appear in a video declaring her Islamization while holding the Islamization certificate.
Marina returned on March 6, 2025, and while the Coptic community and her family celebrated, the family had to flee out of fear and shame where the church temporarily placed them in a guest house owned by the archdiocese.
Case-2: Erini Emil, a minor (17-year-old) vocational student from Shubra, Cairo, left home on Friday, February 28 to attend the Virgin Mary and Archangel Church in Khalafawy, but never arrived. Erini’s phone was switched off, and she vanished without a trace. Her parents were able to file a missing person’s report at the El-Sahel Police Station in Shubra. After Coptic Solidarity publicized her disappearance, highlighting it to US governmental entities and legislators, Erini suddenly reappeared several days later. As in every other case of a disappearance and return of a Coptic woman, not a single person was arrested or prosected.
Case-3: A 20-year-old Coptic woman named Marina Rizk from Al-Omraneya, Giza, disappeared under highly suspicious circumstances on February 26.
Marina is the mother of two young children, 2-year-old daughter Batoul, and a 5-month-old baby, Jacqueline, who was at the time hospitalized and in critical condition.
During her stay at the hospital, the expenses become too much, and Marina was constantly negotiating for a discount. She seemed vulnerable; especially since her husband wasn’t present as he works in the Gulf. That’s when she was pursued to become a Muslim. On February 16, 2025, she was trapped, beaten, and humiliated and was forced to sign an Islamization certificate (according to her testimony in a video released after her return). Out of fear, Marina didn’t share this with her family especially since that certificate was not yet registered. On February 25, 2025, around 9:00 AM, Marina was asked by the nurses to go buy some baby formula & diapers. She left and got into a Tuk-Tuk (as was seen later in the hospital cameras) but never came back. The family couldn’t get the camera footage immediately without a warrant, so they went to file a police report at 8:00 PM and were kept waiting till 2:00 AM. They were then asked to leave and come back at noon the next day where they were again kept waiting for some 9 hours before a police report was filed by Major Ayman Samkouri of Omraneya Police station – Administrative Report # 1403 – Yr2025 – on Feb 26, 2025.
As the family continued to post about Marina’s disappearance, Major Samkouri ordered them to come back to the police station. They all came (her mother, brother Malak, two sisters and their children). The Major ordered the handcuffing of Malak (24), forced him to lay on his belly on the floor, with his hands behind his back, and started kicking and beating him in front of the family in order to frighten and intimidate them. He did this again the next day where he ordered Malak to come back to be beaten and humiliated.
The family later learned that for the entire 11 days of Marina’s disappearance, she was being held in the same building by Major Samkouri, who even refused to give the family the report number; instead, he took their phones and forced them to grant him access where he had all social media posts about Marina’s disappearance deleted. He threatened to detain them, including their senior mother, if any of this was leaked.
Upon returning home, the family contacted Pastor Magdy Tadros of the Word of Reconciliation, a Canadian advocacy organization, and told him what happened. He managed to acquire Major Samkouri’s phone number and threatened to publicize the abuses. To avoid exposure, Samkouri contacted the family and asked them to come pick-up Marina. No one has been arrested or prosecuted for abducting and forcibly converting Marina.
Numerous things come to mind, among them:
1- If these young missing girls and women, can suddenly be found and returned, as has happened in some other cases, authorities must know who lured (or abducted) the girls and have the necessary information to investigate and prosecute. Why don’t the Egyptian authorities ever do anything to prosecute the culprits and to stop these crimes against the indigenous Coptic women of Egypt?
Another question begs an answer: If the situation were reversed and these cases were about Muslim women falling in love with Christian men and/or wanting to convert away from Islam, how would the Egyptian government respond? We know the response based on the situation of Soad Thabet whose son was falsely accused of having a relationship with a Muslim woman. Villagers rioted, stripped Soad naked, assaulted her, and dragged her through the streets. Despite video evidence and President el-Sisi speaking publicly about her assault and the need for justice, Egyptian courts acquitted her attackers in a legal process spanning nearly 7 years.
2- The perpetrators are usually Islamists, targeting young girls, including minors, by exploiting or luring them through a romantic relationship, which is then used to pressure (blackmail) them to convert to Islam. In many instances, the girls have only responded to social media or text messages, then been trapped in “compromising” situations and told everyone will think they have behaved inappropriately, This weaponizing of honor culture is pernicious in that women are manipulated to act “as if” they have brought shame on themselves and their families. Regardless if it is true, and regardless if it was done by force, and photos and video were taken to blackmail them . The perpetrators are part of very active, well- organized and well- financed networks. The authorities often know of these criminal networks and could certainly combat them, but prefer to turn a blind eye—if not to play the role of a facilitator, by implicitly or explicitly encouraging them, and even helping them organize.
3- The highest-ranking Islamic Sunni institution in the world, Al-Azhar, encourages and facilitates preying on Coptic women with the primary purpose of converting them to Islam. While Sheikh al-Tayeb shares a peaceful message with Western audiences, especially with Pope Francis, the teachings and practices of Al-Azhar in reality support the persecution of religious minorities and treatment of non-Muslims as inferior.
4- In the case of Marina Rizk, had she not been returned, under Sharia law, as a “convert to Islam” her two children would immediately have their religion changed to Islam. Her Christian husband would have no say in this. Moreover, the husband would be forced to divorce his wife, unless he also agreed to convert following the pattern we see a systemic effort to ensure that some existing Christians are forced to become Muslims, and that any future offspring will also be Muslims. This gender-specific targeting is part of a larger strategy to Islamize Egypt.
5- What happens to these returned women who had converted? What prospects do they have for a future in society? Coptic Solidarity co-founder, Magdi Khalil, describes their situation as a “civil death.” These women are now considered Muslim and are officially registered as such, even if their conversion back is tolerated in some cases. Every opportunity and decision is impacted by one’s religious affiliation in Egypt. If unmarried, these women will have a difficult time finding a Christian husband. Since sexual abuse is likely to have occurred, the women are seen in such a conservative society, as tainted, as damaged, not quite suitable for marriage. There is no adequate system of trauma care for physical and/or mental health care for these women. As Coptic Solidarity’s report explained, some young women may even be hidden away in convents for their protection. But this further marginalizes the victim, whose safety is still not guaranteed. In the case of Marina from our recent report (pages 46-50), she was returned and the police insisted she be placed in a convent for her safety, but then was abducted again several weeks later.
6- The Egyptian state-affiliated media generally ignores the subject as if it doesn’t exist and refuses to report on it because that would expose the matter and shed light on it. These outlets play a role of supporting the crime by keeping the general public uniformed and placid at the expense of the Copts. In the rare occasions they do report on this issue, their “tailored” coverage claims the victims acted of their own free will, or blame the Copts for harming the country’s reputation, or even for disturbing the social peace!
7- The counseling sessions that used to be organized by the Ministry of Interior were stopped by an administrative decision in 2004. Based on a decree dating back to Khedive Ismail in 1863, these sessions, in which a Christian priest and a family member would meet with the person intending to convert at a security headquarters in the presence of an official, were meant to ensure the seriousness of those wishing to convert to Islam, that they were not being subjected to any pressure. Some argue that reinstating these conversion sessions would not solve the dilemma because in practice they lost much of their meaning and purpose in the years leading up to their cancellation, and turned into a mere formality. Even if true, why not adapt the sessions to meet current needs? And shouldn’t national institutions such as the National Council for Human Rights and the National Council for Women play a role, as entities through which it can be reassured that the convert is safe and has not been subjected to harm or coercion?
In conclusion, the criminal saga of disappeared Coptic women and girls, including minors, continues unabated. It is a continuation of the “Jihad of the Womb” nefarious ideology, and a perfect example of human trafficking.
It is not enough for the Egyptian authorities to return disappeared women—only when they get negative media attention. Much more is necessary, as Coptic Solidarity identified in our report (pages 21-23). The indigenous Copts, and indeed all religious minorities, must be protected and afforded equal citizenship rights in their own country.
