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This article deals with suicide and self-harm in a journalistic context. If you are personally experiencing distress or a mental health crisis, please reach out to a mental health professional or a crisis support service in your country.<\/em><\/p>\n The incident<\/a> of a mother and her five children taking their lives in Alexandria, widely reported as the “Karmouz massacre,” delivered a shattering blow to Egyptian society. Though such extreme cases have recurred in Egypt in recent times, this one stands as the most brutal, by the accounts of witnesses.<\/p>\n “Collective death,” as an escape from poverty and the accumulated weight of hardship, has for the first time become an option in front of Egyptian families. Over the past ten years, while no precise count of incidents has been registered, the indicators point to a steady rise, according to reports that tracked the incidents sporadically over that period.<\/p>\n In Karmouz, toward the end of Ramadan and with Eid Al-Fitr approaching, Rayan, 21, attempted<\/a> to take his own life by throwing himself from the roof of his building, before neighbors intervened and pulled him back. It later emerged that his attempt was almost the final act of a far larger tragedy, after security forces discovered the bodies of his mother and five siblings inside their home.<\/p>\n The graver shock came with Rayan’s confessions<\/a> during the investigation, in which he revealed that what happened was the result of a prior agreement among family members to end their lives collectively, as an escape from the crushing economic and living pressures bearing down on them.<\/p>\n The Karmouz Prosecution renewed<\/a> his detention for fifteen days pending the investigation, on charges of killing his mother and five siblings. The competent investigating authority in Alexandria issued<\/a> an order committing him to a psychiatric hospital to determine the soundness of his mental and psychological faculties at the time of the incident. The investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n The details<\/a> of the investigation indicate that the crisis began after the Jordanian husband divorced his wife by phone and informed her of his marriage to another woman, while telling her he would stop providing for their six children. This coincided with her battle with cancer, multiplying the pressures and crises the family faced.<\/p>\n Neighbors testified<\/a> before the Public Prosecution, revealing the material and psychological suffering endured by the family of the mother and her children, who had been in severe financial hardship for years following the father’s departure and abandonment of them, to the point of depending entirely on neighbors’ charity for their daily food.<\/p>\n Recommended reading:<\/strong> Egypt’s Early Shop Closures: What Do They Actually Mean?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Although the “Karmouz massacre,” as described in the surviving son’s statements during the investigation so far, has been characterized as a case of “collective death” arising from a prior agreement between the mother and her children to escape the weight of poverty and illness, this tragedy refocuses attention on a phenomenon that has recurred in recent years: one parent turning to end the lives of the children, and in some cases proceeding to take their own life afterward.<\/p>\n Despite the variation in the stories, their differing details, and their different social backgrounds, the common thread running through all these incidents, and the most prominent driver, remains destitution or poverty, deteriorating living conditions, accumulated debt, and family breakdown.<\/p>\n In September 2025, the city of Nabrouh in Dakahlia Governorate was the scene of a horrific crime<\/a>. A father strangled his three children to death, aged between 5 and 10, and posted their obituary on Facebook, before stabbing his second wife multiple times, inflicting approximately 13 to 16 stab wounds, and then fleeing.<\/p>\n After the crime, the father fled to the city of Talha, where he threw himself in front of a train on the pedestrian bridge between Talha and Mansoura, dying instantly and his body reduced to pieces.<\/p>\n In June of the same year, the city of Al-Shorouk, east of Cairo, was the site of another tragic incident<\/a>: a divorced Egyptian mother who had been separated for three years strangled her three children, then walked to the nearest police station and turned herself in. During the investigation, she attributed what she had done to severe financial and psychological pressure, saying she was unable to cover her children’s school expenses, which drove her to commit the act in a moment of despair.<\/p>\n In March 2025, in the Abu Zaabal area of Qalyubia Governorate, neighbors discovered<\/a> the bodies of three sibling children inside their home and immediately alerted the police. Investigations later revealed that the mother had committed the crime while in an acute psychological state, suffering from severe mental illness that led her to end her children’s lives.<\/p>\n In 2021, a bakery owner in Al-Gharq village in Itsa district, Fayoum Governorate, killed<\/a> his wife and five children with a bladed object, before attempting to set himself alight inside his shop. Investigations revealed that the man was under the crushing weight of a severe financial crisis and accumulated debts, and had feared his family would face harassment and suffering in the event of his death or imprisonment, which drove him to the decision.<\/p>\n Dr. Said Sadek, a professor of sociology, holds that the Karmouz massacre cannot be reduced to the framework of individual criminality; rather, it is a reflection of a complex social crisis that demands analysis of the social, psychological, and economic factors that led to this tragedy. The family faced a total closure of both material and social opportunity.<\/p>\n He tells Zawia3 that the convergence of grinding poverty, the mother’s illness, and the abandonment of responsibility by the absent father through divorce and remarriage created a state of “collective despair” that transformed death in the victims’ eyes from a crime into “an act of mercy” and the only exit from the wretchedness of reality.<\/p>\n The sociology professor adds that the incident reveals the fragility of the position of the “breadwinner mother” in a patriarchal society that places the full burden of child-rearing and provision on her when the father is absent. He notes that the mother lived in “functional isolation,” socially cut off in a low-income neighborhood that lacked any governmental or civil support networks. This led the family into a state of social anomie, where the traditional family bonds collapsed and the situation transformed into “a suicide pact” to end a shared suffering, which explains the surviving son’s confessions about a consensual agreement to depart together.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The sociology professor stresses the need to adopt deterrent policies to reduce irresponsible childbearing in low-income families, given the psychological pressure it imposes on the mother, pressure sometimes instrumentalized by the father under the pretext of maintaining “strength in numbers” despite limited resources. He insists on expanding free mental health services in low-income neighborhoods and the most vulnerable areas, pointing to addressing the social and economic roots as the surest path to preventing the recurrence of such tragedies, which tend to surface whenever living pressures intensify and social security and family support are absent.<\/p>\n The Arab Foundation for Civil Society Support and Human Rights had earlier warned, in a report<\/a> it published in September last year, of a worrying rise in suicide cases in Egypt after tracking 216 cases during 2024, noting that the actual number may be more than ten times that figure due to a lack of transparency and the failure of official bodies to disclose the real numbers. Suicide cases are concentrated more heavily in Greater Cairo, encompassing Cairo, Giza, and Qalyubia, which recorded 121 cases representing 56 percent of the total, followed by Upper Egypt at 31.5 percent, while Lower Egypt accounts for less than 10 percent of cases.<\/p>\n The Foundation noted that the most common reasons for suicide relate to economic and social pressures, alongside mental illness, family conflicts, academic failure, and delayed marriage, adding that the most vulnerable groups are young people between 21 and 30 years of age, and males, who account for 65.7 percent of cases.<\/p>\n In its report<\/a>, the Foundation called on the government to develop a comprehensive national strategy to address suicide based on accurate data, with a focus on tackling the economic and social roots, addressing rising poverty, and expanding the reach of free psychological support services. It also stressed the need to assess the effectiveness of hotlines and psychological support available to the most vulnerable individuals, to ensure that living pressures do not tip over into tragic decisions, including suicide or recourse to domestic violence.<\/p>\n Recommended reading:<\/strong> $332 Million More for the Light Rail: Why Is Egypt Borrowing Despite Al-Sisi’s Warnings?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Dr. Sara Al-Nahas, a member of parliament from the Mostakbal Watan Party, describes the incidents cited, including the harrowing Karmouz incident, as a dangerous indicator of the depth of the social crisis and the daily living pressures facing Egyptian citizens.<\/p>\n She tells Zawia3 that these events cannot be treated as isolated or transient incidents. The deterioration of economic conditions and the absence of effective social safety nets have created a state of suppression and despair among some citizens, and she calls on the executive authorities to intervene immediately and seriously before the crisis deepens.<\/p>\n The MP stresses that social security is no less important than national security, and that it is essential to review support and social protection policies to include psychological and community intervention programs targeting the most vulnerable families, so as to limit suicide and domestic violence resulting from economic and social pressures. She insists that early intervention and family and community support is the only path to preventing these pressures from turning into personal and social tragedies, and that society cannot be left to face these challenges alone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The latest official statistics indicate that around 29 percent of Egyptians live below the poverty line, as the Prime Minister announced in press statements<\/a> last December. According to data<\/a> from the Multidimensional Poverty Index, prepared by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics in partnership with international partners and published in 2024, around 21 percent of the population suffers from multidimensional poverty, encompassing deprivation of education, healthcare, services, or social protection. The World Bank’s latest data<\/a>, meanwhile, indicates that Egypt’s poverty rate stood at approximately 33.5 percent of the population in 2021, according to the national poverty line measure.<\/p>\n Nivin Obeid, executive director of the New Woman Foundation, holds that many of the tragic criminal incidents in Egypt, including mass suicides and domestic violence cases, are not transient or sudden events but emerge from the convergence of long-term economic, psychological, and social factors.<\/p>\n She tells Zawia3 that the cash transfer support system, such as the Takaful wa Karama (Solidarity and Dignity) program, is falling short, arguing that these programs fail to provide real livelihood security for poor families and female breadwinners, as they are generally limited to “keeping people alive” without addressing the fundamental problems facing these families. She notes that some cases, such as the recent Alexandria woman, may fall entirely outside the reach of this support.<\/p>\n The New Woman Foundation’s executive director draws attention to the absence of any meaningful focus on mental health and psychological support, stressing that the state must work with civil society to deliver realistic coverage of individuals’ needs. She insists that the current neglect of these dimensions is deepening individual crises and preparing the ground for tragic situations.<\/p>\n Nivin holds that studying difficult criminal cases requires a rigorous scientific approach within the framework of forensic and social sciences, and argues that these cases, despite being “exceptional,” provide important lessons for understanding the causes of psychological, economic, and social crises.<\/p>\n She emphasizes the importance of recognizing early warning signs before individuals take irreversible decisions, and considers the state’s or society’s neglect of these indicators to be a failure that leads to the deepening of human and social catastrophes.<\/p>\n A study<\/a> titled “Egypt’s Social Protection System from a Development Perspective,” published<\/a> in December 2024, concluded that current social protection programs are inadequate to provide a dignified life for the poor and low-income households, particularly given the development policies pursued, which have contributed to increasing the number of people in poverty and deepening deprivation.<\/p>\n The study noted that despite the multiple social programs launched to support “priority individuals” following the two revolutions of January 25, 2011 and June 30, 2013, their impact remains limited, especially given that the development policies pursued have relied on external loans from the International Monetary Fund to finance development projects, with the attendant austerity measures that have hit poor families’ ability to meet their basic needs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Based on these findings, the study stresses the need to reconsider the methodology for managing the social protection system, achieving integration among its various programs and broadening the scope of support to cover all basic living needs. In parallel with reforming the system, the study recommends a shift toward an independent development model capable of building a strong national economy that can withstand internal and external crises, and achieving comprehensive and sustainable development grounded in social justice in the distribution of development’s gains, improving the living standards of all segments of the population, reducing the gap between social classes, and thereby contributing directly to combating poverty and limiting its social and psychological consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A rights group tracked 216 suicides in Egypt in 2024 and warns the true figure may be ten times higher, as 29 percent of Egyptians live below the poverty line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[413],"tags":[15220,15215,15224,15217,15218,15216,15223,15219,15221,15222],"kateb":[728],"class_list":["post-15523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-en","tag-egypt-collective-death-poverty","tag-egypt-family-suicide-poverty","tag-egypt-family-violence-economic-crisis","tag-egypt-poverty-rate-2024","tag-egyptian-families-suicide-pact","tag-karmouz-alexandria-mass-suicide","tag-multidimensional-poverty-egypt","tag-social-protection-egypt-failure","tag-suicide-statistics-egypt-2024","tag-takaful-wa-karama-egypt","kateb-shimaa-hamdy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/\u0627\u0642\u062a\u0635\u0627\u062f\u0645\u0635\u0631.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15524,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15523\/revisions\/15524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15523"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=15523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nUnfamiliar, but Not Rare<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\nNot an Individual Crime But a Social Crisis<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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\nA Dangerous Indicator That Demands Intervention<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\nFailure to Provide Real Livelihood Security<\/strong><\/h1>\n