Controversy surrounds new Egypt report on forced conversion of Christian women

CAIRO: A new report published by Christian Solidarity International and the Coptic Foundation for Human Rights has said Egypt largely ignores the forced conversion of Christian women in the country. The new report has sparked a media frenzy, but the controversial report has many detractors, who argue the coverage of the report does not fully grasp the realities on the ground in the North African country.
The report, titled “The Disappearance, Forced Conversions and Forced Marriages of Coptic Christian Women in Egypt” documents dozens of cases of Christian women who were kidnapped and forced into marriage, often after being raped.
Research on the report was done in Egypt by American anti-trafficking specialist Michele Clark and Egyptian women’s rights activist Nadia Ghaly. The report argues that the violence against Egyptian Christians corresponds to the internationally recognized definitions of human trafficking.
“The findings of Ms. Ghaly and Ms. Clark are deeply disturbing, and should challenge human rights activists and institutions, especially those whose mandate includes women’s rights and trafficking in persons, to undertake, as a matter of urgency, further research into this form of gender and religious based violence against Coptic women and girls in Egypt,” said CSI CEO Dr. John Eibner, in the preface of the report.
One case in the report stands out. A 17-year-old woman, called “R” in the report, says that she received a phone call from a man who wanted to meet her in a church. After meeting him there, she told investigators that she was drugged and kidnapped. When she refused to marry a man named Mahmoud, someone she did not know, the man's family allegedly held her down while he raped her. According to her, she began to bleed profusely and can no longer have children as a result.
Investigators interviewed a local priest who claimed there were over 50 cases of forced conversions of Coptic women and girls to Islam and forced marriages to Muslim men in the past year alone from his church.
“The phenomenon of abductions, forced conversions and marriages of Coptic women by Muslim men remains relatively undocumented, under-reported and generally ignored by the international human rights community,” the report states.
But some women’s rights advocates here argue that these are not kidnappings. More often, they see these cases as cries for help by young women in the socially conservative Coptic community, which traces its church to the first century when, by traditional belief, the apostle Mark founded it in Egypt as the first Christian church in history.
In particular, rights activists say the missing young women draw attention to customs among traditional Copts, particularly the lack of access to divorce and the practice of arranged marriages.
“A key reason for the so-called ‘kidnappings’ is that Coptic women have no right to divorce,” said Nahed Abul Komsan, head of the Cairo-based Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights, which is the leading women’s rights group in the country.
“This means that if their parents tell them they are going to marry their cousin, they have to submit to this and have no choice . . . So they turn to Islam, not because of a spiritual belief in the religion but because it gives them more of an opportunity to choose their life’s path,” she said.
Once returned to their families the women’s absences often remain unexplained and the ongoing controversy has served as flashpoints for long-simmering tensions between the Coptic and Muslim communities. Some argue that when they get back to their families, they tell of rape and other horrific experiences in order to argue away what had happened.
“It is not necessarily a societal problem; it is more religious issues that face women in our society,” said Abul Komsan. “Women face leaders that force them to do things that they do not have any desire to do. They do certain things, such as running away from their family and converting to Islam, because it is the only way to get out of their designated role their family has for them.”
Laura, a Coptic woman in her mid-20s living in Alexandria who asked that her surname not be used, agreed. She said that while a few of the kidnappings may be authentic, most of the media reports are based on fabrications made by the families to disguise their daughters’ dissatisfaction.
“We, as Coptic women, have to deal with what our priests tell us and force upon us on a daily basis and often many women just can’t take it any longer so they just leave their families and run off with a Muslim man,” she says.
Muslim leaders have condemned the alleged kidnappings as contrary to Islamic thinking. Al-Azhar grand Sheikh Sayyed Al-Tantawi told Al-Ahram, an Egyptian daily, that “these actions are contrary to Islam and we hope to receive more information concerning alleged kidnappings and would like to have an open dialogue with our Christian brothers and sisters in the country.”
George Ishaq, a Coptic scholar and head of Kefaya (”Enough”), the nonviolent opposition movement, says the country’s minority religious groups need assistance if Egypt is to move forward in creating a more just society based on universal rights, not simply those of the Muslim majority.
CSI's chief has made calls to American President Barack Obama “to encourage Egyptian President Mubarak to take credible measures to combat the trafficking of Christian women and girls.”
BM