This report is issue no. 59 of LCHR's Economic & Social Rights series. The report monitors violence and violation incidents practiced against women, which was published in the Egyptian newspapers during the second half of 2007. These incidents have reached a total of 412 cases that have varied between 96 cases of kidnapping and sexual assaults, 41 murder cases, 54 cases of household violence, 83 cases of marital arguments cases, 44 cases of healthcare negligence, 33 suicide cases, 31 miscellaneous cases like road accidents, 19 cases of official violence against women and 11 cases of violence against working women.
These violent events have led to the death of 220 women, 46 of them because of household violence, 42 murders, 56 marital arguments, 19 cases because of healthcare negligence, 26 suicides and 31 miscellaneous cases.
These cases were published in the Egyptian newspapers as follows: 61 articles in El Wafd newspaper, 56 articles in El Masa'eya newspaper, 49 articles in El Ahrar newspaper, 48 articles in El Badeel newspaper, 41 articles in El Masry El Youm newspaper, 27 articles in El Dustour newspaper, 26 articles in Rose El Yousif newspaper, 25 articles in Nahdet Masr newspaper, 18 articles in El Ahram newspaper, 17 articles in El Naba'a newspaper, 7 articles in Geel El Ghad newspaper, 6 articles in El Maydan newspaper, 5 articles in El Gomhureya newspaper, 4 articles in each of El Khamees, El Ommal and El Gamaheer newspapers, 3 articles in each of Akhbar El Youm and El Fajr newspapers, 2 articles in each of El Multaqa and El Ghad newspapers and one article in each of Oyoun El Lil, El Watany El YoumSaut El Omma and El Akhbar newspapers.
These cases were published during the second half of 2007 as follows: 75 articles in July, 81 articles in August, 77 articles in September, 72 articles in October, 74 in November and 33 articles in December.
At the beginning, the report presents an introduction about the conditions of violence against women socially, economically and politically, showing the deterioration of these conditions and asserting the necessity of improving women's conditions in Egypt and stopping all types of violence practiced against them.
The first section of the report presents the forms of sexual abuse and violence against women represented 96 cases. Most of the aggressors in the household cases were fathers, stepfathers and cousins. Some of these cases were for various reasons, like robbery, revenge or mental illness.
The second section of the report presents the forms of household violence against women represented in 54 cases, which have led to the death of 46 women and 6 injury cases. These cases have varied for various reasons, like robbery, suspicion in behavior, adultery pregnancy, financial or family arguments, revenge or mental illness. Most of these cases were for the defense of honor, practiced by fathers, mothers, brothers, sons, daughters, uncles, grandsons, cousins, nephews, sons in law, fathers in law, mothers in law or first wives, with a total of 12 female and 63 male aggressors.
The third section of the report presents the forms of violence resulting from marital arguments represented in 83 cases, which have led to the death of 56 wives, 8 cases of attempted murder and 9 injuries for reasons that have varied between financial and family arguments, suspicion in behavior, revenge, the wife's humiliation to the husband, disobeying the husband or mental illness. 74 of the assaulted women were housewives.
The fourth section of the report monitors the murder cases of women represented in 41 cases for various reasons, like robbery, sexual assault, fear of exposing a sinful relationship, financial arguments, refusal of marriage, neighborhood disputes or mental illness. The assaulted women have varied between 30 housewives, 4 workers, 2 maids, 2 roaming saleswomen, one beggar, one employee, one student and one businesswoman.
The fifth section of the report monitors women's suicide cases represented in 33 cases, 26 cases have led to death and 7 cases were failing suicide attempts. These cases have varied for various reasons, like despair of recuperation, mental illness, marital or family arguments, failure in education, deprivation of seeing the children, transferring from work or accusation of robbery. Some of these cases have led to broken bones, wounds, burns and poisons. 27 of them were housewives and the others varied between a nurse, a student, a maid, a worker, a roaming saleswoman and a pickpocket.
The sixth section of the report presents the cases of healthcare negligence represented in 44 cases that have led to the death of 19 women for various reasons, like the lack of capacities and capabilities in governmental hospitals, anesthetic overdose, forgetting a towel inside the patient's belly, using bad blood bags or hysterectomy without the patient's notice. These cases have led to deaths, permanent disabilities and deep comas. The victims were 41 housewives, a doctor, a student and a businesswoman.
In the seventh section, the report monitors violence against working women represented in 11 cases two of them were foreigner maids.
The eighth section of the report presents the cases of official violence represented in 19 cases, like policemen assaulting some women, forging police reports against them and depriving them of being assigned in universities, which have been done for various reasons, like sexual assault, rape or robbery leading to injury, permanent disabilities, humiliation and detention.
The ninth section of the report presents the miscellaneous cases represented in 31 cases that have led to the death of 31 women and the injury of 222 others. These cases have varied between gas suffocation, explosion of gas pipes, falling off balconies, drowning, electrical shocks, being shot by mistake, poisoned, burnt, dieing under a collapsing building or road accidents.
The tenth section of the report presents some final notes and remarks showing that the number of violence and violent cases against women has increased in the second half of 2007 represented in 412 cases, while there were 355 cases in the first half.
Then the report presents some recommendations asserting the necessity of raising the society's awareness to eliminate violence against women, the necessity of amending the different legislations to guarantee equality among citizens, improve the conditions of public services and guarantee people's economic, social and civil rights, and the necessity of crystallizing integrated programs implemented by the civil society to protect women in Egypt, improve their conditions and guarantee their rights to safety, freedom and equality.
The full report will be published on our website as soon as we finish the translation.