Faten Zaki was still a child when her mother forcibly married her off through an unregistered (urfi) contract at the age of 12 to a man from the village of Kafr Yacoub in Gharbia Governorate, and she found herself in a spiral of daily violence and torture over two years. In August of last year, Faten was killed brutally at the hands of her rapist husband, when she was no older than 14, simply because she felt hungry and ate a plate of pasta before he returned. When the killer found out, he rained heavy blows on her with a wooden stick (a “shoma”), burned her body with an iron, then threw her from the roof of the house. His family tried to cover up the crime before the truth came out and he was arrested. As for Yasmine Essam Mohamed, a 28-year-old Arabic language teacher, she never imagined that her disputes with her husband, Mohamed El-Safi, which stemmed from his jealousy and his desire to control her, isolate her from her family and push her to leave her job, would end with him stabbing her to death on a public road in front of passers-by as she held her baby daughter, aged a year and a half, while they were returning from Kafr El-Dawar to Alexandria on 8 October 2024. Her screams mixed with her daughter’s screams, and the mother fell soaked in her blood, breathing her last, while the killer tried to flee, but eyewitnesses caught him and handed him over to the police.

After constant disputes with her husband and an unhappy married life, Sitira Abdel Rahman Sayed (56) took a decisive decision to leave the house and live independently in a separate home in search of a safer life. She then decided to file a khula divorce suit against her abusive husband, but she never imagined that her decision to leave and survive would become the reason she was killed. On the morning of Monday 25 November 2024, she left her home heading to her work as usual at the health insurance office in Beni Suef, but she never reached it: her criminal husband was waiting for her as she made her way to work in the morning, carrying a weapon, and he stabbed her several times in front of the entrance to her home and did not leave her until he was sure the victim had died. Meanwhile, Maram Osama El-Amawi (32), a mother of two daughters, was killed by her husband in December 2024, after he beat and strangled her until she suffered an 8 cm cut in her pharynx and a fractured larynx. Despite her critical condition, the perpetrator husband did not move to save her; instead, he held her for 5 days inside the house until her condition worsened and she developed pus in the trachea and pharynx as a result of the deep wound she had suffered, which increased her suffering and prevented her even from breathing. By the time she was taken to hospital, her condition had deteriorated completely: she was placed on ventilators and underwent six surgical operations in an attempt to save her, to no avail, and she died on 2 December 2024 from her injuries.

The details of the tragic endings of Faten, Yasmine, Sitira and Maram, and of other murder victims, differ, yet they are alike in being the final chapter in the chain of suffering lived by many women who are victims of domestic violence crimes in Egypt in particular, and of violence against women in general. Both rose sharply in 2024, making it, by far, the most violent year against gender in Egypt over the last decade: around 1,195 crimes of violence against girls and women were recorded in Egypt during the year, and the total number of domestic violence crimes committed against women reached 540 during the same year. Murders topped the rates of violence against women and girls, with a total of 363 crimes; attempted murders recorded 100 crimes; rapes numbered 153; 182 crimes of sexual harassment were recorded; and 90 crimes of severe beating causing fractures and permanent disabilities were recorded, in addition to 13 cases of being prevented from moving, and in addition to 97 incidents of suicide by women and girls and 33 failed suicide attempts.

Over the last four years, crimes against women increased markedly. The rates of these crimes jumped between 2020 and 2021 by around 96.39%, and the rate fell between 2022 and 2023 by 5.7%, while there was only a slight increase from 2021 to 2022, about 23.76%, whereas crimes rose again by around 25.68% in 2024, which is considered the highest year in the tally of crimes recorded against gender, as around 1,195 crimes of violence against girls and women were recorded in Egypt during it, an increase over 2023, during which 950 crimes were recorded, compared with 1,006 crimes in 2022, and a rise over the rate of crimes of violence against them in 2021, which reached 813 crimes, compared with 415 crimes in 2020, according to the annual report issued by the Observatory of Crimes of Violence against Women and Girls in Egypt, affiliated with the Edraak Foundation for Development and Equality, covering the period from 1 January to 31 December 2024, based on officially reported incidents, government and independent press coverage, and data from the Public Prosecution and the Administrative Prosecution.

Meanwhile, the annual report on crimes of violence against women in the private sphere for 2024, issued by the Barah Aman Foundation under the title “What We Only Know About Crimes of Private-Sphere Violence in Egypt”, documented 703 crimes of violence against women in the private sphere, distributed across 21 Egyptian governorates and divided into 312 crimes of physical violence, 132 murders, 30 cases of reproductive violence, 239 cases of economic violence and 185 cases of social violence. More than half of the crimes were in Greater Cairo. The Upper Egypt governorates came second, with 48 crimes documented there, including 30 in Sohag, 10 in Qena, 5 in Assiut, one in Beni Suef and two in Fayoum. The Delta governorates came third, with 31 crimes documented there: Sharqia Governorate recorded 6 cases, Dakahlia 9 cases, Gharbia 12 cases, Kafr El-Sheikh 5 cases and Damietta two cases, while 5 cases were documented in Beheira, three cases in Alexandria, and three crimes in the Canal governorates, including two in Ismailia and one in Suez. In the border governorates, one crime was documented in North Sinai and two crimes in the Red Sea, while some governorates were absent from the monitoring because of what the report described as a media blackout and tribal authority. The report stressed that the figures do not fully reflect reality, as there are survivors who were unable to report out of fear of stigma or of double abuse.

Inflation, Drugs and the Rising Pace of Violence

2024 was exceptional in nature, as crimes of violence against women took place amid local conditions that affected the nature and rate of crimes and their coverage. During the year, the inflation rate rose and the value of the Egyptian pound fell, which raised the pace of violence against women in the private sphere, as many of them were subjected to physical and economic violence in the form of beating, refusal to provide financial support and the seizure of property, according to the report, which points to the rising severity and changing nature of murders committed under the claim of honour and virtue. The most prominent of these were two cases: that of the Tagammu serial killer, who brutally killed several girls on the principle of honour and abused his wife before she obtained a divorce, and the case of the Gharbia serial killer, in which he killed 4 women on the principle of revenge against his mother because, as he claimed, she had betrayed his father. The report stresses that most murders last year occurred either after taking the drug ice or shabu, which makes its users more inclined to violence and frenzy without any logical reason, or because of the perpetrator’s desire to buy it and his partner’s unwillingness to give him money, since she is the one who provides for the household financially.

Rates of violence against women in Egypt are considered high, as about eight million women and girls are subjected to violence, according to statistics from the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS). Cairo Governorate ranks first in rates of crimes against women, at 32.7%, followed by Giza Governorate at 23.3%. The results of the statistical indicators on violence against women from the Egypt Family Health Survey 2021 indicate that 31% of women had been subjected to domestic violence in its various forms by their husbands, and that 25.5% of currently or previously married women aged 15–49 had been subjected to physical violence by their husband. The rate of physical violence reached 25.5% and that of psychological violence 22.3%, while 31% and 26.1% had been subjected to one form of physical or sexual violence, according to a report by the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics issued in November 2022. Meanwhile, the number of marital violence cases nationwide in the period (2021–2022) concerning incidents of domestic violence stands at 9,538 cases, of which 8,529 were filed by wives against husbands, accounting for 89.5 per cent of the cases. According to the United Nations, an estimated 736 million women have been subjected to physical or sexual violence, and girls are particularly at risk of violence, with one in every four adolescent girls abused by their partners.

The data indicate that the age group from 12 to 18 is the most targeted, which reflects the exploitation of underage girls, while women aged 19 to 30 made up 11% of the victims. Men made up 89% of the perpetrators, while 8% of the crimes were committed by women, and there were 39 cases in which the perpetrator claimed mental illness to reduce the penalty, especially in domestic violence crimes. According to the data and statistics shown by the report issued by the “Violence Crimes Observatory 2024”, there is a rise in domestic violence crimes, which reached 540 crimes committed by family members or by current or former partners. Most murders of women were committed over family or marital disputes, the most common motive, followed by killing because of theft or suspicion about the victim’s conduct. The most common methods of killing were stabbing (23.1%), strangling (19%) and severe beating (15.4%), and 3 cases of disfigurement with acid were recorded, along with others using sharp instruments.

While crimes against women for refusing marriage declined compared with previous years, they still represent a danger, and rates of digital violence and sexual blackmail are rising: the report recorded 60 blackmail crimes, including cases resulting from filming victims after assaulting them, in addition to a rise in crimes of violence against women with disabilities, as the report recorded 13 cases of rape of girls with disabilities. The report also recorded 97 suicides and 33 suicide attempts caused by domestic violence, bullying, social pressures or blackmail.

Recorded incidents rose from 415 in 2020 to 1,195 in 2024, an increase of about 188%. Changes in reporting and documentation can affect that trend as well as changes in violence itself.

The Edraak series gives 813 cases in 2021, 1,006 in 2022 and 950 in 2023. Calculated from those counts, the annual changes were +95.9%, +23.7%, −5.6% and +25.8%, respectively. The decline occurred in 2023, not 2022.

A separate report by Barah Amen, titled What We Know Only About Crimes of Violence in the Private Sphere in Egypt, recorded 703 incidents across 21 governorates in its published summary and geographical analysis. These inconsistencies limit precise comparisons.

Barah Amen listed 312 cases of physical violence, including 132 killings, alongside 239 economic, 185 social and 30 reproductive-violence cases.

The organisation reported that Greater Cairo accounted for more than half of its monitored incidents. It also listed cases in Upper Egypt, the Delta, Alexandria and Beheira, the canal governorates, North Sinai and the Red Sea. Its Upper Egypt breakdown included 30 in Sohag, ten in Qena, five in Assiut, one in Beni Suef and two in Fayoum.

The report cautioned that absent or low figures in some governorates did not mean women there were safe. Fear of stigma, family pressure, limited media coverage and difficulties obtaining legal or social support can keep violence out of the record.

Economic pressure and escalating abuse

Barah Amen links the circumstances surrounding some 2024 cases to the falling value of the pound and the strain on household finances. It describes physical and economic abuse, including assault, withholding financial support and taking women’s property.

The organisation also highlights killings justified by perpetrators through claims about “honour”, morality or revenge. It discusses the cases known in the media as the Fifth Settlement and Gharbia serial killings as examples of extreme violence and misogynistic rationalisations.

Some cases involved reported drug use or disputes over money for drugs.

The scale of violence is much broader than the incidents captured by monitors. A 2015 national survey by CAPMAS, the National Council for Women and UNFPA estimated that about 7.8 million women experienced violence annually.

The 2021 Egyptian Family Health Survey found that 31% of ever-married women aged 15–49 had experienced physical, sexual or emotional violence by their current or most recent husband at some point. The figures were 25.5% for physical violence, 22.3% for emotional violence and 26.1% for physical and/or sexual violence. These are overlapping survey measures, not percentages to add together, and the cited figures are not confined to one year.

Separately, a 2023 news report cited 9,538 marital-violence cases in 2021–2022, including 8,529 brought by wives against husbands, or 89.5%. This is a different measure again from either population surveys or civil-society monitoring.

Globally, a WHO estimate released in 2021 put lifetime exposure to physical or sexual intimate-partner violence, or non-partner sexual violence, at around 736 million women. It also found that about one in four women aged 15–24 who had been in a relationship had experienced intimate-partner violence by their mid-twenties.

Edraak’s monitored cases also included blackmail, attacks on women and girls with disabilities and violence linked to a rejected relationship. Its report recorded 60 blackmail cases and 13 rape cases involving girls with disabilities. Among alleged perpetrators, it classified 89% as male and 8% as female.

The report identifies girls aged 12–18 as especially prominent among the recorded victims, while women aged 19–30 accounted for 11%. It also noted 39 cases in which a perpetrator reportedly claimed a mental-health condition.

Reported motives for killings included family or marital disputes, theft and accusations concerning a woman’s conduct. The report’s breakdown identified stabbing, strangulation and severe beating among common methods, at 23.1%, 19% and 15.4%, respectively. It also documented acid attacks and assaults with sharp objects.

Protection gaps behind closed doors

Aya Abdelhamid, a feminist activist and director of the Alwan Observatory project at the New Woman Foundation, tells Zawia3 that Egypt lacks a comprehensive framework protecting women in the private sphere.

She criticises discriminatory provisions and lenient treatment of violence justified through claims about women’s behaviour or family honour. In her view, social tolerance of men’s supposed authority to “discipline” women helps sustain abuse.

Leaving an abusive relationship can be exceptionally difficult, she says, because of financial dependence and the stigma attached to separation. A survivor may face pressure to remain in the marriage while the abusive partner retains access to her.

Abdelhamid also points to religious interpretations used to justify assault and public sympathy for men who kill women after rejection. She cites expressions of support for Mohamed Adel, who killed Nayera Ashraf, including support that continued after his execution, as part of the culture activists are trying to challenge.

Domestic violence rarely begins with murder, says feminist activist and Barah Amen co-founder Shimaa Tantawy. Threats, beatings and repeated violations can precede a fatal attack, while the woman struggles to find a way out.

Tantawy argues that legal and social protection often fails before violence reaches that point. She describes a conservative, patriarchal response from some authorities that prioritises returning a woman to her husband’s home, alongside films and television dramas that depict women as dependent on men rather than autonomous people.

She says the organisation observes more incidents around Ramadan and other social or religious occasions, and links them to economic strain, time spent with abusers and cultural pressures. She also raises concerns about drug-facilitated sexual violence and assaults linked to separation or financial control.

Although more women appear to be filing reports, Tantawy says many in tribal communities remain unable to do so. Restrictions on leaving the home, stigma and the influence of tribal leaders on local authorities can reinforce their silence.

The violence that monitoring cannot see

Gender consultant Mai Saleh warns that high recorded figures in the capital and other large cities should not be read as evidence of lower violence in rural or border areas.

Access to hotlines, support offices and police reporting is uneven. Customary rules, patriarchal attitudes and restrictions on women’s movement can make disclosure difficult or dangerous. Some women may not recognise their experiences as abuse because their communities treat those practices as normal.

Low reporting is not proof of safety. The violence taking place inside homes may be far greater than the number of incidents that reaches the public record.

Saleh criticises explanations that excuse perpetrators through economic pressure or alleged provocation. She also points to reconciliation, pressure to waive civil claims and the use of judicial leniency, arguing that these can weaken accountability. Women face abuse at work too, she says, and need stronger protections there.

She sees gender stereotypes as central to the problem: boys are encouraged to be loud and forceful, while girls are expected to be submissive, patient and willing to endure mistreatment for their children. Challenging those expectations requires work with men and women together.

Edraak’s geographical figures cited in the report put Cairo at 32.7% and Giza at 23.3% of recorded cases. These are shares of monitored incidents, not population-adjusted crime rates or rankings of an individual woman’s risk.