By HRWF –
Four members of the European Parliament – Bert Jan Ruissen (ECR), Miriam Lexmann (PPE), Sebastian Tynkkynen (ECR) and Carlo Fidanza (ECR) have asked a parliamentary question about the situation of Coptic girls and women in Egypt to the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
A damning report
Coptic Solidarity (*) has published a revealing report titled Hidden Crimes, Public Deception: The Epidemic of Abductions and Forced Disappearance of Coptic Women and Girls. This report sheds light on the evolving tactics of Muslim trafficking groups who target Coptic women and minor girls for forced conversion and marriage. It builds on the knowledge gathered in the first report on this subject, ‘Jihad of the Womb’: Trafficking of Coptic Women & Girls in Egypt, which has become the primary source on trafficking of Coptic women utilized by the United Nations, the US Government, and legislators worldwide.
Coptic Solidarity finds that Coptic women and their bodies are sometimes used to shame and/or avenge the entire Coptic community. Yet, most reports on Egypt exclude the special vulnerability of Coptic Christian women as a distinguishable ethno-religious group with regard to their safety and (the lack of) gender justice.
Many hundreds of Coptic women have been forcibly disappeared in the last decades in Egypt, but government officials and legislators in the West have been hesitant to speak out as the Egyptian government depicts these disappearances as “love stories” in which Coptic women elope with Muslim men. There are certainly a number of cases in which Coptic women and girls might have voluntarily married a Muslim and converted to Islam (keeping in mind that the opposite—that is Muslim women converting and/or marrying Christian men—is prohibited by Egypt’s sharia-based laws), but the number of disappearances and subsequent decision to sever all ties with their families is too substantial to ignore or to assume the majority of disappearances are voluntary.
In fact, the evidence points to the exact opposite conclusion. Even more so when we take into account that family members are often not allowed to report such disappearances to the police, and in many instances are forced to deal with (implicit or explicit) threats by the police.
A major change in tactics by these Islamic conversion groups (assisted by implicit or explicit support by certain authorities) is the use of grooming and/ or luring instead of just utilizing abrupt abductions. There is also a new emphasis on targeting Coptic women who suffer physical or mental health problems, which make them doubly vulnerable. This enables the abductors to create confusion regarding the circumstances of a disappeared Coptic girl, creating a narrative of a love story utilizing existing relationships and communications, despite orchestrating the entire situation.
Coptic Solidarity was able to interview immediate family members of disappeared girls to better understand the current tactics being utilized to abduct and forcibly convert and marry Coptic women to Muslims in Egypt. This new report explores these techniques and provides recommendations to the Egyptian government to end the exploitation of Coptic women by these criminal groups, many of whom have ties with government officials and known Islamic clergy in Egypt.
As with the original, Coptic Solidarity submitted this report to the office of the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief, to the US State Department’s Office for Trafficking in Persons, to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, and to other relevant government entities and legislators.
Parliamentary question
“According to the non-governmental organisation Coptic Solidarity, Coptic girls and women in Egypt are the victims of a hidden epidemic. Coptic girls and women are often subjected to abduction, rape, forced marriage and forced conversion to Islam. Copts make up around 9 % of Egypt’s population.
Islam is Egypt’s state religion, and Sharia is the country’s principle source of legislation. Deadly attacks by Islamist mobs on Coptic Christians are not uncommon. Nor are attacks on churches. However, the violence suffered by Coptic girls and women is not widely known. According to Egyptian law, no one under 18 is permitted to marry. However, this law proves easy to circumvent.
Moreover, marital rape is not recognised as such. Coptic girls and women can therefore be abducted, forced to marry, forced to convert to Islam and raped; they do not have any legal protection.
- 1.Is the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR) aware of the reported violence against Coptic women and girls?
- 2.What is the VP/HR’s political response to this, and is the protection of minorities, especially Copts, a priority in dialogue and diplomacy with Egypt?
- 3.How will the VP/HR urge the Egyptian Government to take all the measures necessary to end this violence against Coptic girls and women?”
Waiting for an answer probably in June or July.
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(*) Coptic Solidarity is an organization working towards equal citizenship rights for the indigenous Coptic Christians of Egypt, and we support those in Egypt working for democracy, freedom, and the protection of the fundamental rights of all Egyptian citizens. It advocates in cooperation with the affiliated organizations in Canada and in Europe (Solidarité Copte). For more information, contact coptadvocacy@copticsolidarity.org
