Partners, relatives responsible for 80% of female homicides in Egypt, rights group says

A report by Tadwein for Gender Studies documented 85 cases of women and girls killed or dying by suicide in the first half of 2026, based on a survey of reports published by several Egyptian newspapers.

According to the report, 94.1% of the cases involved killings, while 5.9% were suicides. The report drew on data from Femimap, a digital tool launched by Tadwein in December 2025 to collect and analyze reports on killings of women and suicides published by eight Egyptian news websites.

The report classified killings by perpetrators, motives, methods, and victims’ geographic distribution and age groups. It found that current or former partners were responsible for more than half of the killings, accounting for 56.6% of cases, while family members ranked second, at 24.1%.

Family disputes were the leading motive, accounting for more than 50% of killings. Direct killing methods, including throat-slitting, were the most common, representing 45.3% of cases. Deaths resulting from beatings accounted for 25.3%, according to the report.

Speaking about the findings, Heba Wagih, a researcher at Tadwein, told Al Manassa that the figures had changed little from previous years, indicating that insufficient measures had been taken to address the crisis.

Wagih attributed the continued rise in these crimes to the failure to act on data Tadwein had published in previous years. That data highlighted the need to improve media coverage of killings of women.

“Reporting the news is treated as an easy task. A lot of information is missing from coverage, such as the perpetrator’s and victim’s occupations and the motive for the killing. They just say ‘family disputes’ without explaining,” she said, adding that this undermines the quality of the study’s findings.

Tadwein recommended training journalists in gender-sensitive reporting, providing comprehensive protection for women, building the capacity of law enforcement personnel, and adopting a unified law to combat gender-based violence.

In September, feminist rights organizations and initiatives condemned the killing of 16-year-old Aya Radwan in Al-Saff, Giza governorate. Her brother killed her after prosecutors and security authorities returned her to her family following her disappearance.

Nine organizations held the Ministry of Interior partly criminally and morally responsible in a joint statement. They cited the ministry’s publication of the girl’s photograph and details of her disappearance on its official Facebook page, including information that she had been found with “an acquaintance” in Alexandria. The organizations said authorities should not have handed her back to her family without genuine safeguards to protect her.

Wagih also called for action to pass a unified bill to combat violence against women and girls. MP Maha Abdel Nasser had previously announced her backing for the proposed legislation at a conference organized by a coalition of organizations seeking to improve the legal framework for protecting women. The coalition includes Tadwein for Gender Studies, the Cairo Foundation for Development and Law, the Egyptian Women Lawyers Foundation, and the Center for Egyptian Women Legal Assistance.