Women and girls related to suspected Isis affiliate members ‘abused and arbitrarily detained’ in Egypt

‘Women and girls who reached out for help were instead punished with arbitrary detention and torture,’ human rights group alleges

Mideast Executions (AP)

Women and girls related to suspected members of an Isis affiliate in North Sinai have been arbitrarily detained in Egypt for months and sometimes even years, campaigners have alleged.

Human Rights Watch and the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights allege some of these women and girls have been tortured and blocked from having contact with a lawyer or family members.

Campaigners allege the women - some of whom sources say endured rape and forced marriage at the hands of the Isis-linked organisation - were then detained when they sought help.

Lawyers and witnesses said the detentions were generally an attempt to push male relatives allegedly connected to Isis affiliate Wilayat Sina’ to hand themselves in to the authorities or instead gain intelligence about them.

Researchers cited a case from 2019 which saw authorities hold a 15-year-old girl who had been forced into three forced marriages since she was 14, with the teenager losing her first two husbands after they died in conflict.

According to the teen’s lawyer, Egyptian authorities held her after she made the trip from North Sinai to Cairo, blocking her from having contact with her family and legal representation for half a year before going on to prosecute her.

The Independent has reached out to the Egyptian government for comment. The country has previously denied allegations of arbitrary detention and torture.

Rothna Begum, a senior women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, told The Independent: “It’s shocking that women and girls are facing abuses by an Isis affiliate and by state officials who detain them for merely being related to or married to suspects.

“Horrifyingly women and girls who reached out for help from officials following forced marriage and rape, were instead punished with arbitrary detention and torture. Egyptian authorities are leaving women and girls in North Sinai with nowhere to turn.”

The organisations documented 21 cases stretching from 2017 to 2022 centred around 19 women and two girls - conducting remote interviews with family members of some of the women and girls, as well as their lawyers, two women who were previously held, among others.

According to family members of three women, they were abused them at their different premises, involving beatings and electric shocks.

Ahmed Salem, executive director of the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, said: “Egyptian authorities have been abusing many women and children in North Sinai to extract information about their suspected Isis affiliate relatives or pressure these suspects to turn themselves in.

“The authorities should immediately free all women and girls held merely for being related to or associated with male suspects, and investigate torture and other ill-treatment against them.”

The Egyptian authorities have accelerated their military operations against the Isis affiliate Wilayat Sina’ in North Sinai since 2013. The affiliate declared its loyalty to Isis back in 2014.

Campaigners warned the area has been overhauled into a closed military zone by the Egyptian authorities. Volatile clashes have erupted between Egyptian army troops, who have had the backing of tribal fighters, and Wilayat Sinai.

Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said: “Many women and girls in North Sinai have already suffered intolerable abuse at the hands of Isis-linked members. The Egyptian government should be protecting them.”

Sources told researchers women and girls have been “gravely abused by Wilayat Sina’ members in their hideouts” - adding they have sometimes blocked women and girls from leaving.

The human rights organisations stated in all of the 21 cases they examined, the Egyptian authorities did not respond as if the women and girls were potentially victims of crimes.