Testimonies from 214 women workers and trade unionists across five Egyptian governorates paint a portrait of a labor market that is “fragile and violent.” Their accounts anchor a new annual report documenting 289 road accidents that killed and maimed women agricultural and transport workers, alongside 92 recorded cases of sexual harassment in 2025.
The report, issued by the Permanent Conference for Working Women—a program of the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services—directly accuses the Ministry of Labor of abdication, charging that weak oversight has reduced the new labor law to little more than “ink on paper.”
The women whose testimonies informed the report work across formal sectors, private and public, as well as the informal economy in Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said, Minya and Gharbyia.
Preventable deaths on the road
Road accidents emerged as the deadliest and most recurring violation documented. According to the report, 289 accidents were recorded over the year, primarily affecting women agricultural workers transported daily in unsafe vehicles, under unregulated conditions, and without legal protection.
Amal Farag, general coordinator of the conference and programs director at the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services, described transportation accidents and occupational safety violations in the informal sector, particularly in agriculture, as the report’s most alarming and politically revealing findings.
“There were 289 accidents. Not a single month passes without an accident in which one or two women die, not to mention injuries and permanent disabilities,” Farag told Al Manassa. She stressed that agricultural women workers remain outside legal protection. “They are completely unseen, and as a result they face every form of violation.”
Farag said the data reflect systemic government failure to monitor private sector facilities and large farms. “Every time an accident happens, the Ministry of Social Solidarity announces compensation for the deaths, and that’s where it ends. But the Ministry of Labor does not say it will bring informal workers under the protection of the law. The names of farm owners are not even announced—those who employ women who face death on the roads every day.”
In July, an accident on the Regional Ring Road killed 18 young female agricultural workers and a microbus driver. In its aftermath, labor groups and political forces called for a comprehensive investigation that would include scrutiny of employers, working conditions, regulatory failures, and the implementation of genuine social, health and safe transport programs for agricultural women workers.
Economic exploitation and unsafe conditions
Beyond transportation fatalities, the report documented 107 cases of economic violations, including failure to implement the legally mandated minimum wage and the imposition of arbitrary wage deductions.
Unsafe working conditions accounted for 102 cases, encompassing road accidents that threaten women’s lives, employment without contracts or legal protection and exploitation through excessive working hours.
The private sector ranked first among entities responsible for violations, accounting for 27% of cases that harmed women workers. The informal sector followed at 23%, while the government sector ranked last at 13.5%.
Harassment across all sectors
The report recorded 92 cases of gender-based violence, including verbal and physical harassment, threats or blackmail in exchange for keeping a job and unequal pay. It also documented 87 cases of arbitrary administrative measures such as forced transfers and wage reductions.
Maternity and breastfeeding rights were violated in 56 cases, linked to the absence of workplace nurseries and administrative intransigence, including pressure on women to return to work before the legal end of child care leave.
On the guarantees provided under the new labor law, Farag said that criminalizing harassment and violence in legal text is insufficient without mechanisms for enforcement.
“How will I protect a worker after she files a complaint?” she asked. “The law is good, but it needs ministerial decisions and policies that protect complainants from dismissal and defamation. Otherwise, women will face the same old difficulties.”
She added that harassment is a common factor across public, private and informal sectors, rooted in a culture of fear and stigma in which women fear social backlash and are often reluctant to disclose even their workplaces out of concern they will be identified.
On Sunday, 11 feminist organizations and initiatives warned of escalating media and social media campaigns aimed at “justifying sexual harassment crimes and blaming victims.” They described this trend as a “blatant violation” of the rights of women and girls and an “undermining” of efforts to combat gender-based violence in Egypt.
Legal protection still pending
Farag concluded by emphasizing that the most urgent recommendation is “legal protection for domestic workers and home care nurses,” accusing the government of using promises of legislation to improve its international image before the International Labour Organization.
She pointed to a draft law on domestic workers—signed by 60 members of parliament and stalled in parliamentary drawers for five years—as clear evidence of the absence of genuine political will to recognize and protect this vast sector.
