Claims of the abduction, forced marriage and forced conversion to Islam of Coptic Christian women and girls in Egypt is usually met with scepticism and outright denial, according to advocacy group Coptic Solidarity.
It says the practice is widespread and highly sophisticated.
An 18-year-old, middle-class Coptic Christian student known as ‘Amany’ went to school as usual when she found herself caught in a web of Islamist students, administrators, police and sheikhs, seeking to forcibly convert and marry her to a Muslim man.
Her family has never seen her since.
Coptic Solidarity claims more than 500 Coptic women and girls have been abducted for forcible conversion and marriage in Egypt within the last decade.
“Traffickers collude with local imams, police, and government officials with complete impunity for the perpetrators.”
“Very few girls are found and returned to their families.”
However, the advocacy group recently successfully negotiated the release of three young “abducted” Christian women.
Not a single known perpetrator or accomplice was arrested or prosecuted.
Coptic Solidarity reports a network of Muslim girls in an Islamisation ring at her school had targeted Amany for two years on WhatsApp and Instagram chat groups, trying to plant doubts in her about Christianity and distance her emotionally from her family.
It states the Muslim girls were coached by men from the strict Salafi branch of Islam who sought to lure Christian students into Islamic captivity.
The advocacy group has written an extensive report on the practice titled: Hidden Crimes, Public Deception: The Epidemic of Abductions and Forced Disappearance of Coptic Women and Girls.
“It is sometimes argued that these cases are mostly situations in which women or girls elope with a Muslim man of their own free will,” it stated.
It concedes that this is sometimes the cases, but adds: “The number of disappearances and the subsequent decision to sever all ties with their families is too substantial to ignore, or to assume that the majority of disappearances are voluntary.”
“In fact, the evidence points to the exact opposite conclusion.”
Amany’s family claimed they were intimidated by police and other authorities.
Her school claimed she attended on the day of her disappearance when she didn’t.
A police officer tried to force her sister into saying that Amany was in a romantic relationship, so that he could fabricate a story explaining her disappearance.
Coptic Solidarity says police pressuring relatives to falsely claim disappeared girls are involved in sexual affairs is a common pattern.
“Increasing the stigma of loose sexual morality is especially sensitive in a culture in which feelings of shame associated with gender-based religious persecution are already present and abused by perpetrators,” its report stated.
Amany’s uncle believes her forced disappearance was meant to humiliate Coptic Christians who make up 10% of Egypt’s population.
“This is a plan to humiliate our faith, not to humiliate a girl personally, and it has nothing to do with the girl’s manners [moral values],” he said.
He pointed out that female Syrian and Lebanese refugees in Egypt are not targeted as the Coptic Christians are.
Coptic Solidarity stated: “With the use of ‘grooming’ and forcible separation from her family and community, Amany would have been forced to accept life as a Muslim without the option to make her wishes known.”
“In many cases the means of converting Coptic Christian women and girls has shifted from abduction to deception, luring or “grooming,” its report noted.
As punishment for trafficking children is more severe than cases of adult victims, perpetrators often wait until the targeted girls reach the age of 18 to abduct them.
Amany disappeared two months after she turned 18, though the grooming started when she was 16, according to her family.
Coptic Solidarity has called for tougher laws to address the problem.
“Impunity for all involved with the various crimes is the primary obstacle to ending the targeting of Coptic women and minor girls for abduction, forced marriage and forced conversion,” its report stated.
“The Egyptian government must ensure local police accept reports of missing Coptic women and search for the missing person.”
“They must bring legal charges against any officials who refuse to perform their duties of filing an abduction or a missing person’s report, and against all officials who are found complicit in the disappearance of Coptic women and girls, and those who threaten or attack family members for reporting a missing person.”
Image: Coptic Solidarity
