Rising Cases of Women in Egypt Facing Abuse and Stigma Over Alleged Ties with ISIS

Egypt: Women Abused Over Alleged ISIS Ties: A Discussion on Human Rights Violations and Due Process

The recent report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights on the arbitrary detention, torture, and flawed due process of women and girls related to suspected members of the Islamic State (ISIS) affiliate in North Sinai, Egypt, is deeply concerning. The report documents how some of these women and girls were themselves victims of sexual abuse, forced marriage, and other abuses by the ISIS-linked group and were detained after escaping and seeking help from authorities. The Egyptian authorities have denied them their rights by subjecting them to incommunicado detention, torture, and prolonged detention without trial.

The situation raises grave concerns about the human rights situation in Egypt and the failure of authorities to protect victims of abuses and treat them as victims rather than perpetrators. Since July 2013, Egypt has been conducting military operations against the ISIS affiliate Wilayat Sina in North Sinai, turning the region into a closed military zone where independent reporting is prohibited. Both the Egyptian military and police and Wilayat Sina have seriously violated international humanitarian law in ways which may amount to war crimes.

The report documents 21 cases involving 19 women and 2 girls, who were held arbitrarily and subjected to abuse. The detentions were aimed at pressuring male family members suspected of links to the ISIS affiliate to turn themselves in or obtain information about them. Authorities have detained women and girls who, according to their relatives, had not lived in Wilayat Sina hideouts and may never have been there, apparently to extract information about their relatives or retaliate against suspected family members.

The authorities have ignored their obligations under international law by failing to treat the women and girls as possible victims of crimes themselves. Instead, they have been referred for prosecution after escaping and seeking protection from the authorities, with security forces detaining and holding them incommunicado without access to lawyers for up to two months.

Moreover, the authorities have circumvented release orders by detaining women and girls arbitrarily, charging them in new cases with the same offenses, and using the process of rotation to keep people in prolonged arbitrary detention.

The situation is a clear violation of international law and Egypt‘s obligation to respect human rights and due process. The authorities should immediately release all women and girls held without valid legal grounds and investigate allegations of torture and other ill-treatment against them. Egypt must respect its obligations under international law and provide justice and support to all victims of abuse, regardless of their alleged affiliation with armed groups.

Egypt‘s partners in the international community should condemn the abuses and pressure the Egyptian authorities to end the serious violations of human rights, ensure that those responsible for abuses are held accountable, and provide support to all victims

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