Souad, Marline, Maryam… and the Endless List
Souad, a 15-year-old girl, vanished without warning. She later appeared in a video, fully veiled, claiming she had "converted to Islam of her own free will." Her devastated family flatly denied the claim, speaking instead of threats, coercion, and a methodical cover-up by local police.
Marline disappeared on her way to school. Weeks later, she was found married to a Salafi man in another governorate. Her parents were barred from seeing her. Her "marriage" had been officially registered by the authorities a minor forcibly wed against her will.
Maryam, 16, likewise vanished. Her family then received a phone call: "Your daughter is safe. She has embraced Islam. Do not look for her." The voice on the other end belonged to a well-known Salafi figure.
A National Tragedy, a Personal Awakening
The abduction of Coptic Christian girls and their forced conversion to Islam is not a fringe phenomenon. It is systematic, well-documented, and shielded by silence
from both the Egyptian state and the international community. I first became aware of it through the notorious cases of Wafaa Costantine and Camilia Shehata, two Coptic women married to priests, whose "disappearances" sparked massive Coptic protests in the early 2000s.
J'ACCUSE: I accuse a state apparatus that permits these crimes to occur. I accuse religious institutions that bless acts of coercion. I accuse a society programmed to applaud the erasure of Christian identity as "a victory for Islam." Those names shook me early on, and their echo still rings in my ears.
"A Nation for All"? Really?
If a country abducts its Christian daughters, forces them to veil, converts them under duress, and marries them off to extremist Salafi groups how can we possibly still claim it is "a nation for all"? No, this is not unity; it is apartheid cloaked in patriotism.
Numerous documented proofs exist. Countless grieving families have filed complaints. Churches beseech security officials. Yet the state rarely intervenes. Occasionally, the Interior Ministry announces that "the girl converted willingly" and "refuses to return." The case is closed. The girl disappears. The family mourns.
Forced Islamization: A Centuries‑Long, Ever-Widening Wound
This is not new. It is a centuries-old strategy aimed at dissolving Christian identity in Egypt. Since the early days of the Islamic conquest
yes, the Islamic invasion of Egypt Christians have faced coercion, marginalization, jizya taxes, and persecution. Islamization was never a choice; it was often the only escape from degradation.
Since the military coup of 1952 not just under Sadat or Mubarak state and religion have been deliberately fused. The "Islamic identity of Egypt" became constitutional dogma, and Copts now over 17 million were gradually rendered strangers in their own homeland.
This systemic Islamization was not limited to Christians. It also targeted the very fabric of Egypt's religious diversity. After the mid-century exodus of some 90,000 Egyptian Jews, driven out by harassment, confiscation, and orchestrated hatred, a historic community was erased. What happened was nothing short of ethnic cleansing, and it left only memories, without graves or monuments.
Institutional Complicity
Security forces routinely obstruct the safe return of abducted girls, coercing their families into silence under the pretext of "preserving social peace." In some cases, entire communities are punished for demanding justice for a single daughter. Collective punishment has become the standard.
When these girls are eventually recovered, they often arrive psychologically shattered some having endured rape, beatings, and systematic indoctrination. The state provides no psychological care, no rehabilitation services, nor even an official acknowledgment of their suffering. Instead, the survivors are ostracized, and their lives remain irreparably broken.
Recognition as the Gateway to Justice
The problem runs deeper than mere abduction or forced conversion; it lies in society's acceptance and at times celebration of these crimes. Egyptian media labels returning girls as "apostates," the police treat them as "runaways," and religious authorities parade them as trophies. No institution ever admits to their trauma.
This atmosphere fosters impunity and emboldens Salafi factions to prey on vulnerable girls, especially in rural areas. Kidnappers operate with support from certain mosques and sometimes even financial incentives. The hidden agenda? To erase Christianity from Egypt's social fabric quietly, steadily, and permanently.
Discrimination Extends Far Beyond
Copts endure systemic bias in education, employment, housing, and public life. They are seldom found in elite institutions or influential positions. Even sports is not spared: Egypt's premier football team bears the sectarian nickname "The Prostrators' Team" and includes not a single Coptic player. This is no coincidence; it is deliberate policy.
Once a mosaic of faiths and cultures, Egypt has become a singular monologue. The Copts who helped build this nation alongside Muslims are being willfully written out of its history.
To this day, the Egyptian military regime ignores the most sacred Coptic celebration
Easter. Every year, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi visits the Coptic Cathedral to wish Christians a Happy Christmas, but never acknowledges Easter, the cornerstone of Coptic faith. A gesture as symbolic as it is damning.
Egypt Since 1952
Since the 1952 coup, the promise of a pluralistic republic has dissolved into a state-run project of national homogenization. Copts were pushed to the periphery politically, culturally, and even numerically. After the Jews, they were next. Their churches were monitored, their presence diminished in textbooks, their youth fed into a system that either Islamicizes or excludes.
The Maspero Massacre: An Unhealed Wound
In October 2011, twenty-eight peaceful Coptic protesters were crushed under military tanks outside the Maspero state TV building. The crime was televised. The horror was documented. Yet no one was held accountable. Justice was never served. Maspero is not merely a massacre; it is a mirror reflecting the military regime's contempt for Coptic lives.
The World's Silence
Egyptian media remains mute. Western outlets tread cautiously. Academics in the West are nearly as silent. Why? Criticizing a "Muslim country" risks accusations of Islamophobia. Coptic suffering fails to trend. Victims are inconvenient.
But silence fuels oppression. It legitimizes abuse. It emboldens perpetrators.
Breaking the Silence for Everyone
I do not write to divide; I write because silence is complicity. These girls deserve better. Christianity in Egypt is not a foreign import it is an ancient, indigenous, and sacred faith.
If Egypt is to truly rise, it must embrace all its children not erase some of them. Forced Islamization must be exposed, condemned, and halted. The world must speak out. Egyptian civil society must mobilize. Reform must come not as a favor, but as a right.
I accuse: I accuse a state, a system, and a silence. And I refuse to be part of it.
I must also extend my gratitude to Israel Hayom for appealing to the Jewish conscience and informing Israeli readers about this humanitarian issue that concerns our shared humanity.
Mohamed Saad Khiralla is a political analyst specializing in Middle Eastern affairs and Islamist movements, an opinion writer and member of PEN Sweden.
