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Christian women forced to convert to Islam in Egypt

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Emma Caddow
WVoN co-editor

Escalating numbers of Coptic Christian women and girls are being abducted and coerced into conversion and forced marriage, says a report by the George Washington University.

The report, conducted by Dr Michele Clark and Nadia Ghaly during the political uprising of the Arab Spring last year, states that at least 550 Coptic Christian women and girls over the last five years have been kidnapped from their communities.

Dr Clark says victims have indicated they were befriended by friends or relatives of their kidnappers. Or the kidnappers drugged them as part of an organised strategy.

A mother who testified before the Helsinki Commission last week said kidnappers tried to abduct her daughter in broad daylight.

Her abductor shouted to bystanders while dragging her to a waiting taxi, “No one interfere! She is an enemy of Islam.”

The Coptic women are often beaten and held until they eventually agree the only way to be safe is to convert to Islam.

Some are forced into domestic servitude.

Others are not so lucky and are raped by their captors and told they cannot return home because their families would not accept them back.

The victims’ families, who search for their missing daughters, sisters, aunts or wives, often never discover their fate.

Since the revolution, cases of reported disappearances have increased, while recovery of women and girls has decreased.

Some victims have managed to contact their families through the Internet, letting them know they are still alive but have had to convert to Islam.

Whilst there is no doubt some conversions are legitimate, overwhelming evidence points to abduction, forced marriage and coerced conversion persecuting the Coptic population.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, says he wants the country to be inclusive of all religions, and has even expressed his intention of appointing a Copt and a woman as his vice presidents.

But strangely, for those women recovered, the Egyptian government has refused to reinstate a Christian identity on their national identity card.

In 2008 the government also abandoned the need for religious counselling sessions with a person’s own clergy prior to their conversion to Islam.

The report found that Egyptian authorities generally dismissed the criminality of conversions and forced marriages because they presume young women were willing participants.

It said there were no reported cases, either before or after the revolution, in which an abductor has been prosecuted.

One protestor of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s recent visit to Egypt carried a sign that said, “Obama, don’t send your dollars to jihadists.”

Helsinki Commission Chair Chris Smith said there was no indication the US has raised the issue with Egypt.

“Denial and obfuscation will neither help victimized Christian women, nor challenge the religious bigotry and sexism that impedes the development of democracy in Egypt,” Dr. John Eibner, CEO of CSI-USA, explained.

  1. i do not believe that at all,
    nobody can’t be forced to do something
    this is a real scam

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