Cairo – The Justice Organization for Development and Human Rights has monitored spread of Salafi fatwas (religious edict) in the villages and hamlets of Upper Egypt and the Nile Delta, where women are prohibited from going to Coptic doctors. Such fatwas were spread due to the exploitation of high levels of illiteracy among residents of these areas, particularly in rural regions. The Fataws prohibit Muslim women from visiting any Coptic doctors in public or private hospitals or clinics, especially gynecologists and obstetrists. Zidan El-Qenaei, spokesman for the organization, warned against the spread of such fataws, which aim to foment sectarian sedition and force Christians to leave the areas of Upper Egypt and the Nile Delta. Such warnings came after a Coptic doctor was killed on July 3 in the Egyptian governorate of Monufia, located in the northern part of the country in the Nile Delta, in addition to the murder of another Christian doctor in the recent months at the hands of Takfiris in the Egyptian province of Arish, northeast of Cairo.
