A post by former doctor and filmmaker Omnia Sweidan described alleged abuses against patients that she said she witnessed in the obstetrics and gynaecology department at Alexandria’s El-Shatby University Hospital during her internship six years earlier. Her account included bullying, sexual harassment, violence during childbirth, unnecessary interventions without consent and threats to withhold care.
The post prompted a wave of testimonies on Egyptian social media about obstetric violence by healthcare providers. The term encompasses violations of women’s bodily autonomy, dignity and rights, including physical or verbal abuse, lack of informed consent, and neglect during pregnancy and childbirth.
On 16 June 2026, Sweidan was arrested at her home in Damanhour. Rights and feminist circles expressed alarm as contact with her was lost for hours and her whereabouts were unknown. Hashtags asking where she was and demanding her freedom circulated.
The following day, she appeared before the East Alexandria prosecution and faced accusations of publishing false news on Facebook and misusing her account. Prosecutors later said the investigation followed a complaint from the lawyer representing Alexandria University Hospitals. She was released on EGP 20,000 bail pending the case, according to her lawyer, Mohamed Ramadan Abu Baybars.
Her lawyer’s announcement of release.
Sixteen rights organisations, initiatives and political parties, alongside public figures, called for unconditional release and the dropping of charges. They described her detention as a violation of expression and demanded an independent, transparent investigation into her testimony, with protection against retaliation for women and healthcare workers reporting abuse.
Human-rights lawyer Azza Soliman says the charges send a damaging message to anyone considering reporting violations. What happened could be understood as an attempt to silence witnesses and whistleblowers.
“Pursuing people who speak about abuses instead of seriously investigating the reported events may create fear among victims and witnesses and discourage them from giving testimony or making complaints,” she tells Zawia3. Protecting witnesses and reporters is essential to uncovering violations and holding those responsible accountable.
Gawaher al-Taher, director of the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights’ access-to-justice programme, says the episode raises questions about authorities’ handling of healthcare-abuse reports. Investigation of the accounts should have taken precedence over action against the person who disclosed them.
She says the lawyer who submitted a report explained during the investigation that Sweidan was a witness to the alleged events rather than an accused person, and that the aim was to investigate those events.
“The authorities could have formed fact-finding committees, listened to women describing their experiences, and reviewed records from the period the doctor identified,” al-Taher tells Zawia3. That would help establish a more accurate picture.
Obstetric violence is not new, she says, but sensitivity surrounding childbirth and the difficulty of discussing abuse have long kept it outside public debate. The centre has received complaints over many years about verbal humiliation, reprimands and inhumane treatment in delivery rooms.
The issue is not confined to one hospital. Following Sweidan’s post, women described different forms of mistreatment in public and private hospitals across governorates. Al-Taher calls for these accounts to be treated as indicators requiring inquiry, rather than isolated personal stories.
Detention did not stop the testimonies. Dr Alaa Walid Ghorab posted allegations about events during her training at El-Shatby, including humiliating treatment during miscarriage or childbirth and reprimands or neglect while women were in pain or bleeding.
Ghorab alleged that a doctor tied a woman’s fallopian tubes during a miscarriage procedure without a clear medical justification. She also described what she considered an error during a hysterectomy, saying an ovary fell into the abdominal cavity before being repositioned. These remain allegations reported by the doctor.
Dr Farida Mahgoub said in a Facebook video that she had begun a series of field research projects on the postnatal period in 2013. She reported severe psychological harm and acute psychotic symptoms after traumatic births. The Arabic report cited 13% and a further 75% sample figure without clearly distinguishing their denominators; those figures cannot be treated as a reliable population prevalence estimate.
A doctor identified as Boussy Ali described alleged harassment and abuse in operating rooms during her internship at the 6 October Health Insurance Hospital. She accused a worker of entering while patients were being prepared and naked, touching and harassing some women in front of medical staff, while others ignored or joked about it.
“I personally witnessed other forms of violence, including humiliation, insults and shouting during childbirth, sometimes even pinching and hitting,” she wrote. She said many victims were women with little means of defending themselves beyond silence.
Limited awareness and fear of reporting
Mayar Makki, founder of the Bar Aman initiative, describes obstetric violence as a form of medical violence during pregnancy, childbirth and related procedures. It has been documented for years in journalism, studies and accounts collected by feminist and rights organisations.
It includes denial of informed consent, excluding women from decisions about their bodies and treatment, verbal humiliation and degrading conduct, and painful or unnecessary procedures without adequate explanation or meaningful agreement.
“Common practices such as caesarean deliveries without clear medical justification, or without enough opportunity to understand alternatives and make an informed decision, also fall within obstetric violence,” she tells Zawia3. They deprive women of control over their bodies and reproductive health.
An examination or intervention without clear need, or without respect for privacy, information and consent, can violate dignity and rights, she says. Earlier documented testimonies have described such practices.
The El-Shatby accounts encouraged other women to describe experiences they had kept silent about, often because they did not recognise them as violations. Awareness of obstetric violence remains limited.
Makki links this to assumptions about medical authority: doctors are seen as the sole decision-makers, while patients are excluded from meaningful participation. Women may fear reporting, consider the treatment normal, or believe it does not warrant a complaint. Pain, anaesthesia and the physical and psychological pressures of childbirth can also make immediate recognition or documentation difficult.
Addressing the issue requires institutional acknowledgment, serious investigations, stronger accountability and awareness of patients’ rights. Informed consent, privacy and dignity must be respected throughout pregnancy and childbirth care. Pursuing those who expose violations allows them to continue without accountability, she argues.
Magda Soliman, director of the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights’ health and reproductive-rights programme, says the testimonies reopen a longstanding issue of mistreatment within sexual and reproductive healthcare. It concerns care quality and women’s dignity across institutions, including public and university hospitals.
“Women may face verbal humiliation, mistreatment, violations of dignity and sometimes a lack of privacy during childbirth or reproductive-health services,” she tells Zawia3.
Social prejudice and demeaning attitudes towards women can influence treatment in healthcare institutions, she says. Such behaviour is not confined to male staff: some women healthcare workers also reproduce a broader institutional and social culture.
Recurrent complaints include lack of privacy, insults, reprimands, hurtful remarks and inhumane treatment when patients are particularly vulnerable. Healthcare is a right that must not depend on a woman’s economic or social position.
Weak supervision and unclear accountability help perpetuate these practices, Soliman says. She calls for enforceable patient-rights standards, oversight by the health and higher-education authorities, and better selection and evaluation of staff’s professional and interpersonal suitability. Obstetrics departments must ensure privacy, confidentiality and safety.
Nevine Ebeid, executive director of the New Woman Foundation, places obstetric violence within broader concerns about medical practices and women’s rights. Egypt’s high caesarean rates raise questions about whether women receive enough information to choose their delivery method and whether institutions obtain informed consent.
Consent is not limited to surgery. Decisions affecting women’s reproductive health may be taken without full information or meaningful participation.
“Some childbirth practices reflect a culture that diminishes women’s pain and suffering during labour,” she tells Zawia3. That can lead staff to dismiss complaints or overlook psychological and physical needs.
Overcrowding in public hospitals and shortages of specialist staff can also reduce care quality and sensitivity to patients’ rights, Ebeid says.
International health literature describes verbal abuse, coercion, unjustified interventions, failure to obtain informed consent and breaches of safe-care standards. Ebeid calls for a clear national framework with binding protocols for pregnancy and childbirth, integrated into professional and medical accountability.
Rights and feminist organisations and defenders said in a joint statement that the testimonies opened a long-overdue public discussion about women’s safety, dignity and fundamental rights. They encouraged many women to share experiences long suppressed by fear, silence and stigma.
Addressing obstetric violence begins with recognition and listening, not silencing those who draw attention to it, the statement says. Individual and collective testimonies can help identify structural problems affecting care quality and patient rights.
The statement emphasises expression, reporting suspected violations and participating in public discussion of healthcare as constitutional and internationally protected rights. Dignity in childbirth is integral to health, physical and psychological integrity, and humane treatment free from abuse and discrimination.
It calls for a safe environment for women and healthcare workers to describe experiences without intimidation or retaliation, serious professional discussion of prevention, and care based on dignity, informed consent, privacy and non-discrimination. Authorities should approach the issue through rights and reform, putting women’s safety first.
Practices of obstetric violence
Dr Ayman Sabaa, a researcher on the right to health and health policy at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, says the term obstetric violence remains unfamiliar to many providers and lacks an agreed official definition. It covers insults, dismissal of symptoms, exclusion from decisions and unnecessary interventions, including medically unjustified caesareans.
The Arabic report cites a national caesarean rate of approximately 52% for 2014–2018, around 60% in urban areas and up to 94% in some Cairo hospitals. Its accompanying graphic labels the same 52% figure as 2021 data; the periods are inconsistent and these figures must not be conflated with a current national rate. The report links high intervention levels to financial incentives, time pressure and training gaps.
The original graphic also presents 15% as a universal recommended ceiling. WHO clarifies that it does not recommend one target rate for countries or hospitals. Its 2015 statement discusses the historical 10–15% benchmark and stresses providing caesareans when medically needed, rather than meeting a numerical target.
WHO clarification of caesarean rates.
Caesarean delivery: figures cited in the Arabic report
| Measure | Rate | Context |
|---|---|---|
| National estimate | 52% | Text: 2014–2018; graphic: 2021. Source-period discrepancy. |
| Urban estimate | 60% | Cited in the text; different population. |
| Some Cairo hospitals | 94% | Selected hospitals; not a national rate. |
| Historical international benchmark | 10–15% | Not a current WHO target for every hospital. |
Sabaa relates mistreatment to paternalistic medical practice, in which providers act as sole decision-makers and exclude women from decisions about their bodies. Social assumptions that minimise women’s complaints or decision-making ability can intensify this in obstetrics.
“Clear definitions and professional standards from the competent authorities are essential,” he tells Zawia3. Informed consent must involve sufficient information for meaningful choices, including options for pain relief, rather than being reduced to a formality.
Medical education and training should respect dignity and ensure real participation in reproductive-health decisions. A trainee’s involvement does not entitle them to examine patients without consent or subject them to pain or embarrassment, he stresses.
The Doctors Syndicate affirmed its commitment to patient dignity and rights as fundamental to medical practice and the doctors’ oath.
It said it was following the El-Shatby allegations with the Alexandria syndicate and investigations at Alexandria University’s Faculty of Medicine. Violations of patient rights or professional duties, it stressed, expose those responsible to disciplinary and legal accountability.
The syndicate urged staff, patients and families to report abuses and promised serious, urgent examination of complaints to protect rights and professional ethics.
Alexandria University said it was taking the allegations seriously and that dignity, safety and medical ethics were non-negotiable.
The allegations were being examined by the Faculty of Medicine’s competent bodies, it said, promising decisive action if wrongdoing was established. It invited documented complaints through official channels to verify accounts and protect those submitting them.
The university urged against premature judgments before investigations concluded, citing the rights of patients and staff and the hospital’s service to tens of thousands annually. It asserted commitment to transparency and accountability while warning of legal action against those spreading what it called rumours if allegations proved false.
Alexandria University statement.
Between demands for investigation and the authorities’ insistence on awaiting findings, women’s and doctors’ accounts test the health system’s ability to address allegations transparently and provide care safeguarding dignity and physical and psychological safety.
The investigation at El-Shatby also opens wider questions about pregnancy and childbirth care in Egypt: informed consent, respect for patients, and effective oversight and accountability within obstetrics departments.
