Abdeen Misdemeanor Court acquitted a transgender woman of the charge of “habitually practicing debauchery,” in a case that was brought about by security forces based solely on her appearance and lacked evidence of any actual offense.
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) said the June 27 ruling affirms that gender expression, reflected in a person’s behavior and appearance in relation to gender, “must not be turned into grounds for accusation.”
The case dates back to June 17, when a young trans woman was arrested while walking on a public road in Abdeen, on the grounds that her feminine appearance did not match the gender marker listed as “male” in her government-issued documents.
Security forces did not attribute to her any specific material act linked to the charge of “habitually practicing debauchery,” according to the ECRF in a paper they issued in support of the ruling.
In connection with the arrest, the ECRF said that, despite their client being subjected to enforced disappearance and despite officials denying her presence both at the checkpoint and the police department, she was questioned the following day before the Abdeen Prosecution and then referred to the Misdemeanor Court on the same charge.
At the first hearing, the court ordered her release and adjourned the case to a later session that same month.
During the trial hearings, the commission’s legal team argued before the court that the case entirely lacked elements of the crime of “practicing debauchery,” stressing that the charge was based solely on appearance and not on a criminalized act, in violation of the constitutionally guaranteed principle of legality in criminal law.
The defense also stressed, according to a statement by the ECRF, the absence of the element of “habitual practice” required by the Court of Cassation for the crime of “practicing debauchery” to be established, which requires proof that the act was repeated with different partners.
The defense said a person’s mere presence in public space with a different appearance does not create a case of flagrante delicto and does not justify arrest or detention.
According to the ECRF, the case falls within a broader pattern of prosecutions targeting the transgender community through vague morality laws. It cited another similar case recently handled by their lawyers, in which a transgender content creator who posts videos on TikTok was arrested and faced similar debauchery and public morality charges before being released pending either trial or the shelving of investigations.
The case of the content creator went beyond criminal targeting, as it was accompanied by widespread social and media stigmatization, which ECRF said ignored their client’s attempts to change her official papers and obtain approval from the relevant committee to undergo gender-affirming surgery, which ran into rejection or obstruction.
ECRF stressed their categorical rejection of the use of provisions of the Anti-Prostitution Law to prosecute the transgender community, or to punish people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
Accordingly, they called on the authorities to ban security stops based on identity or gender expression and to require security bodies to identify the specific material act involved, rather than relying on vague descriptions such as “imitating women” or “unnatural appearance.”
The commission also called for a comprehensive review of the laws used to prosecute trans people, foremost among them the Anti-Prostitution Law and the Anti-Cyber and Information Technology Crimes Law.
The commission urged the creation of a clear legal pathway within the Civil Status Organization that would allow people to amend their official papers in line with their gender identity, alongside developing the working mechanism of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate’s committee to ensure comprehensive and safe healthcare that preserves their rights and dignity.
