1– Synopsis
2- Introduction
3- Methodology and Objective
4- Violations against Women in Police Stations
4-1 Double Violence: How Police Stations deal with Complaints of Sexual Violence
4-2 Protection of Women Subjected to Violence
4-3 How Police Stations Deal with Detainees
4-4 Sexual Assaults in Police Stations
4-5 Humiliating and Degrading Circumstances of Incarceration
4-5-1 Humiliating and Degrading Intrusive Searches
4-5-2 Disregarding the Privacy of Women in Detention Places and Humiliating Conditions of Incarceration
4-5-3 Gender-Specific Needs: Menstrual Pads in Police Stations
4-5-4 Conditions of Children and Pregnant Women in Police Stations
5- Violations against Women in Public Prosecution Offices
5-1 Cases of Sexual Violence
5-1-1 How the Public Prosecution Deals with Cases of Sexual Violence
5-1-2 Discrimination against Women in Judgements rendered in Cases of Violence
5-2 The Treatment of Women Defendants/Detainees in the Prosecution
5-2-1 Condemning Women Defendants based on Moral Judgements or Prejudice by Prosecutors
5-2-2 Admitting Confessions Extracted under Harassment or Threats of Rape and not Considering them Torture
5-2-3 Refraining from Conducting Separate Investigations in Complaints of Harassment and Violence against Detainees (How the Prosecution deals with Detainees’ Complaints of Sexual and Physical Violence)
6- Conditions of Women in Prisons
6-1 Humiliating and Degrading Searches
6-1-1 Intrusive Searches
6-1-2 Searches of Cells
6-2 Unnecessary Medical Examinations in Prison
6-3 Humiliating and Degrading Conditions of Incarceration
6-4 Taking into Consideration Gender-Specific Needs (Menstrual Pads in Prisons)
6-5 Sexual Assaults in Prisons
6-6 Health Care Conditions for Mothers and Pregnant Women in Prisons
7- Violations against LBTQI+ Women
7-1 Violations against LBTQI+ Women by Prosecutors
7-2 Violations against LBTQI+ Women in Police Stations
7-3 Violations against LBTQI+ Women in Prisons
7-4 Unnecessary Medical Examinations
7-5 Psychological Consequences of Violations against LBTQI+ Women during and after Imprisonment
8 – Conclusion and Recommendations
8-1 Needed Changes in Law and Policy
8-2 Regarding the Public Prosecution
8-3 Regarding Police Stations
8-4 Regarding Prisons
8-5 Regarding Intrusive Searches
8-6 Regarding Mothers and Pregnant Women
8-7 Regarding Medical Examinations especially for LBTQI+ Women
1– Synopsis

This report aims at shedding light on the conditions of women when they go through the Egyptian criminal justice system; whether they are victims of violence who report to the judicial system, or detainees held in one of the detention places of the state. It primarily exposes repeated patterns of violation to which women are subjected at the Prosecution and in detention places like police stations and prisons. The first part of the report tackles how women are dealt with when they go through the Egyptian justice system as victims of violence who report it. The report includes interviews with lawyers who work in the field of defending victims of violence starting from the moment they file complaints in police stations. Procedures take place differently (e.g. how incidents are registered or physical or sexual violence cases are dealt with). This depends on a number of factors including: the awareness of the officer responsible for registering the incident; the geographic location of the incident; and the social or economic class. Lawyers also stated that police assistants in particular often exercise a patriarchal role with young women who are victims of violence. They tell these women not to file reports against harassers, and not to take legal recourse so that the future of the accused man is not ruined. They usually suggest that it is enough that the accused gets beaten up and disciplined. In other cases, police assistants advise the culprit to file a counter-complaint against the complainant. Of course, this severely and directly affects the rates of police reports reaching the Prosecution. Moreover, there is nothing in Egyptian law that stipulates the protection of women victims of violence or women who are likely to be victims of violence. According to interviews with lawyers, when victims receive threats to their safety or life and they go to the police station to file a report; law enforcement officers don’t seem to care unless an actual and flagrant incident of violence occurs. At best, law enforcement officers register a no-assault warning report, but they don’t take any precautionary or protective measures for the benefit of the complainant. So, she remains at risk and remains threatened. This also takes place in reports of domestic violence. When a woman reports that she was subjected to domestic violence, the police usually tells her to go back home without taking any action because domestic violence is considered in the eyes of society and law enforcement officers “a family problem.” When an investigation is done, the state in most cases cannot provide protection to victims. In many cases, the quality and methods of investigation leads to subjecting victims to violence again.

The report also discusses how the Prosecution deals with incidents of sexual violence. Prosecutors in Egypt don’t have a particular code for protection of the information of victims of violence. They don’t provide any protection for information of the complainant. Personal information of the complainant (like name and address) may be accessed by Prosecution Staff or lawyers. So, victims risk being chased by the culprit or his family members. Moreover, Prosecutors and Prosecution staff are not trained to deal with cases and victims of sexual violence.

Moreover, the report also engages with the struggle of women to work as judges. Because there are no women who work as prosecutors; women find themselves forced to tell the story of their harassment, sexual assault or rape to a male Prosecutor although she is still suffering the trauma of her sexual violation based of her gender from another man. So, it is usually hard to tell the story again. Moreover, the report observed – based on interviews with lawyers – the existence of discrimination in judgments issued by courts in cases of sexual and physical violence because there are no women in judiciary. Judges often issue mitigated sentences in cases of sexual or physical violence. They usually use the power of leniency to mitigate sentences against offenders.

The second part tackles the conditions of women when they deal with the criminal justice system as defendants and detainees in police station, then in prosecution offices and finally in Egyptian prisons. This part includes a chapter on violations against women in police stations including sexual or physical violence. In police stations, the use of violence is normalized whether as a tool to preserve order; for the purpose of control and imposition of fear; or for purposes of interrogation and extracting confessions. Regarding sexual violence, there are no statistics about rates of sexual harassment and sexual assault at prisons. However, they are probably high as there is no effective control or supervision on the treatment of women in detention. This is totally left to the discretion of police officers, police assistants or female jailers in prisons without supervision of any kind. Thus, there is a high risk of the occurrence of sexual violations or threats thereof against detainees whether by female jailers or police assistants (especially against criminal rather than political prisoners). Violations could take the form of sexual harassment, assault or abuse of power because detainees cannot file reports of the violations they are subjected to; either because they don’t know that these are violations, they don’t know what should be done in, or they are not capable of taking actions.

The report also covers patterns of detention conditions that are humiliating and degrading to human dignity, to which female detainees are subjected. The report conducted interviews with lawyers and victims. It also reviewed cases available in the database of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) on prisons. It found out that in many cases searches are used as a tool of abuse for the purpose of breaking prisoners in detention places. In some police stations in Cairo, privacy of women is not at all taken into consideration during searches. Prisoners may be threatened with intrusive searches by police conscripts or assistants if they refuse to take off their clothes. Moreover, the report documented incidents of prisoners being harassed by female jailers during the process of intrusive searches in police stations. Women don’t enjoy any degree of privacy in police stations. Cells are entered for searches anytime during the day without taking into consideration their privacy or how they are.

The report also engages with gender-specific needs and the availability of menstrual pads in police stations. It reveals that it is hard for women to find sanitary pads in police stations. In prisons, menstrual pads are sold in prison canteen for very high prices. So, many women cannot afford to buy them. This applies in particular on women from poorer classes who form the majority of inmates in prisons and police stations. Women get menstrual pads in visitations by their family members. Otherwise, they may use pieces of cloth for long periods of time which exposes them to health problems like dermatitis and urinary tract infections. In other cases they don’t find pads, pieces of cloth, or anything to use to prevent the leaking of their menstrual blood. This exposes these women and other women in the same detention place for health problems because of lack of hygiene tools in police stations. So, detention rooms are likely to witness the outbreak of epidemics and germs. Moreover, the conditions of pregnant women and mothers are even worse. Pregnant women and mothers don’t have any significant medical care in police stations. They are even more likely to suffer violations by denying them health care. The report interviewed one of the detainees who witnessed – during her stay at a police station – the storming of the cell she was in, drowning it with water, breaking everything in it,
and being attacked along with other detainees by kicking and dragging on the floor. A female child that was younger than nine months old – was inside the detention room during these events.

The report also tackles violations that women are subjected to in the offices of the Prosecution, while they are being questioned as defendants. The report discusses how defendants are being condemned based on prior moral judgments or moral prejudice by prosecutors during investigations. The ECRF documented cases of former prisoners who were subject to gender-based discrimination as they received moral questions that have nothing to do with the case or the charges pressed against them. The report also documented that the Public Prosecution admits confessions extracted from detainees under threats of rape, harassment and stripping them naked and filming them. This may even reach the level of actually harassing them or forcing them to take off their clothes. These practices lead young women to have nervous breakdowns and confess doing things they didn’t necessarily commit. In most cases, the judiciary doesn’t seriously look into complaints of torture reported by the victims at the Prosecution. It usually confines itself to accusations made by the Prosecution. Judges usually look only into State Security inquiries reports. They don’t look into the statements of these young women and don’t care if their confessions were extracted under coercion, threat or torture. Moreover, the Prosecution often refuses to open a separate investigation in complaints of harassment and violence against detainees; and refuses to perform its investigative role along with its role as an authority. The report tackles the conditions of women in prisons including humiliating and degrading intrusive searches they go through as soon as they arrive to the prison as routine admission procedures. The report documents that several detainees were sexually harassed during the search. Many detainees confirmed that intrusive searches are used as a tool for abuse. They also state that their vaginas were examined using a dirty plastic bag, and that the same plastic bag is used for more than one woman. Of course, this exposes all these women to dangerous health risks and spreads infections or bacteria from one detainee to another. Moreover, some detainees complained that they had uterine or anal bleeding after the humiliating searches conducted by women jailers who are not trained to perform proper medical examination.

The report also tackles the issue of unnecessary medical examinations. It documents the case of a political prisoner who was taken to Al-Qanater prison with a group of other women accused in immorality cases, as well as other women accused of criminal charges. They were subjected to a medical examination that included virginity test and anal test in Al-Qanater Public Hospital without any justification. This was done as part of routine admission procedures into prison. Moreover, prisoners live in humiliating and degrading circumstances. The situation in Egyptian prisons, and especially in the detention places of women, is catastrophic in terms of internationally agreed upon standards of health as follows: conditions of detention are generally poor; cells are overcrowded; there is no proper ventilation; and there is no proper nutrition to preserve the physical health of prisoners. In terms of hygiene, prisoners suffer the spread of dermatological diseases as they cannot take proper care of their hygiene because of the bad conditions of detention. Moreover, prisoners in Al-Qanater prison complained that the situation is bad to the extent that they cannot use clean water. Lawyers, on behalf of the prisoners they represent, stated that there is an unknown substance in water that causes hair fall and skin color change; and that water is usually contaminated and dark and sometimes has bugs therein. Such water is only used for showering, but even in this case it causes change of skin color, hair fall and dermatitis. Women have to use this water because it is the only water available for free. In terms of gender-specific needs, menstrual pads are available in prisons only in the prison canteen. Prices at the canteen shop are very high. So, prisoners depend on what they get in their families’ visitations. In case visitations are prohibited or cancelled by the prison administration – as what happened at the time of the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic – conditions of prisoner severely worsen as proper food and personal hygiene tools like menstrual pads become unavailable. In cases where prisoners cannot afford to buy menstrual pads, they have to work inside the prison for money in cleaning, washing or serving other prisoners so that they can buy pads and other needs. When this option is not available, prisoners resort to old ways like using a piece of cloth and rewashing it or using cotton as alternatives for menstrual pads. All this affects the physical and psychological health of prisoners. The report also tackles conditions of women who are mothers or pregnant inside prisons. We documented that there is no true medical follow-up of the health of pregnant women and the conditions of their pregnancy when they are admitted to prison. They are verbally asked if they suffer any diseases or health complaints. They go to the hospital every two weeks for mere formalities. In some cases, pregnant women who are detained in political cases are subject to arbitrary treatment. Moreover, the general conditions of the mothers’ ward are not suitable for children because of overcrowding; poor health care; poor ventilation and narrow space. The report documented that several children and their mothers had health problems because of poor conditions in the wards they are detained in. Even in these cases, prison administration does not provide any real health care for detainees. Former prisoners in Al-Qanater prison stated that most medications in the prison hospital are general and very weak analgesics. There are no residing doctors there from different specializations, but merely a general gynaecologist. There is no medical care for pregnant women like ultrasound examination or similar procedures for caring for pregnant women and mothers. Even the type of food given to mothers and pregnant women is not better than general food at prison. Pregnant women and mothers have to depend on food they receive in visitations. Moreover, there is no psychological follow-up for pregnant women or women who just gave birth. It is well known that women during pregnancy and child labor go through different psychological conditions; and in many cases women have post-partum depression. In such cases, they don’t receive any kind of psychological care.

The last chapter discusses violations that are practiced against LBTQI+ women when they go through the Egyptian criminal justice system. The report also tackles violations they endure at the Prosecution including being asked moral or sexual questions or being degraded; as in the case of Sarah Hegazi who was asked by the Prosecutor if she “accepts to sleep with animals” because she is homosexual. Moreover, it tackles violations they are subjected to in police stations as violence by male police assistants, other prisoners or jailers is higher than usual. In the case of Sarah Hegazi for example, she was beaten and harassed by female jailers in the police station of Sayda Zeinab who were instructed by the Chief Investigator Officer to do so in order to humiliate and frighten her and to break her will because of her sexual orientation. Moreover, there are other violations that LBTQI+ women are subjected to during detention like lack of detention places assigned for transgender people as in the case of Malak El-Kashef who spent her sentence in solitary confinement, which badly affected her psychological status to the extent that she tried to commit suicide. Moreover, LBTQI+ women prisoners are subjected to harassment and threats of sexual assault by jailers, prison staff and sometimes other detainees. They also endure unnecessary medical examinations although they present medical reports that prove their condition. This happened with Malak El-Kashef who was made by the prison doctor to have a pregnancy test although she is transgender, as well as the cases of Eman EL-Helw and Hossam Ahmed. These practices result in harsh psychological consequences on LBTQI+ women while they are in prison and after they leave.

The report concludes with a number of recommendations on needed changes in law and policy including: Egypt’s adoption of Bangkok Rules (the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders); and enactment of law to protect victims of violence. Regarding the Public Prosecution, the report recommends that there must be women prosecutors in order to ensure gender balance in the Public Prosecution and courts of law to guarantee that there is no discrimination against women in cases of sexual violence and in the use of the power of leniency according to article 17 of the Penal Code. Moreover, the Egyptian Constitution has to be respected which considers that confessions given under harassment or threats of rape are null and void; such acts qualify as torture; and a separate investigation should be opened in complaints of harassment and violence against detainees in detention places. Regarding police stations, female staff should be present all the time in police stations in order to conduct searches, supervise detainees and protect the safety of women. Gender- specific needs have to be taken into account, and menstrual pads have to be made available for the same prices outside detention places. The report also recommends using modern alternatives to intrusive searches, according to Nelson Mandela Rules and Bangkok Rules, like infrared scanners, heat detectors, and electronic gates especially that these tools are easily available. The report recommends abidance by Nelson Mandela Rules regarding the provision of health care for women and pregnant women in police stations and prisons; the arrangement of continuous follow-up for them in public hospitals because of the poor capabilities of prison hospitals; and providing different health-care services including psychiatry. The report also recommends the abolition of unnecessary medical examinations in the case of LBTQI+ women; and allocating certain places for transgender men and women in order to prevent any sexual or physical assault or violation against them in prisons; as well as allowing them to continue their hormonal therapy and medical and psychological follow-up.

 

2 – Introduction

“As noted in the Updated Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violence against Women in the Field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice: ‘Violence against women is often embedded in and supported by social values, cultural patterns and practices. The criminal justice system and legislators are not immune to such values and thus have not always regarded violence against women with the same seriousness as other types of violence……’”^[1]

So, discrimination or violence against women in detention places is not separated from violence and discrimination women face outside detention places. Actually, they are an extension thereof. The United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (Bangkok Rules)^[2] is the basis of the recognition of gender-specific needs for women when they go through the criminal justice system. Moreover, it establishes rules and safeguards for the prevention of torture and ill-treatment in detention places as women in particular face ill-treatment and violence in detention places (especially gender-based violence embodied in ignoring their needs in detention places like menstrual pads and special health care for pregnant women and women who have their children with them during incarceration which harms both mothers and children).

In some circumstances, ignoring gender-specific needs of women amounts to cruel, inhuman and humiliating treatment. The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment stated that the scope of preventive measures is broad, and includes the prevention of any form of abuse for persons deprived of their freedom. If these abuses are not deterred, they exacerbate and reach the level of torture or other forms of ill-treatment, cruel or inhuman treatment.^[3]

 

3- Methodology and Objective

This study aims at revealing the conditions of women while they pass through the Egyptian criminal justice system like Prosecution offices and detention places (including police stations and prisons) whether they are victims or detainees. These conditions include health care for women prisoners, mothers and pregnant women; humiliating and degrading searches; sexual and physical assault in detention places; as well as how the Prosecution deals with cases of violence that victims are subjected to inside and outside detention places; and finally the conditions of LBTQI+ women in detention places and the psychological consequences of violations they are subject to. The report does not cover violations that happen to women detainees that are not based on gender; like forced disappearance, torture and other forms of ill-treatment in detention places including solitary confinement and deprivation of visitations etc. The report merely focuses on gender-specific violations. Moreover, we could not conduct interviews with women imprisoned in criminal cases. However, violations they are subjected to were deduced via interviews with lawyers and some former prisoners in political cases.

In order to prepare this report, 14 interviews were conducted. Seven of them were interviews with lawyers, and seven with victims and former detainees in Egyptian prisons in the governorates of Cairo and Giza during the past five years. Moreover, we sought help from the database of the ECRF to study and analyze more than 50 cases. Former studies and press releases tackling these issues were consulted. We also reviewed a number of cases, reports and complaints of violence against women in detention places. We also reviewed international agreement and instruments related to the rights of women in detention and how they should be treated in a way that doesn’t violate human dignity and that protects human rights (e.g. the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners known as Nelson Mandela Rules, the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders known as Bangkok Rules, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The report anonymized names in order to protect the safety of victims and lawyers from any security risks.

 

4- Violations against Women in Police Stations

4-1 Double Violence: How Police Stations deal with Complaints of Sexual Violence

Women are present in police stations either as defendants/detainees or as victims who report an assault or violations they were subjected to like sexual or physical violence. There is no specific or fixed protocol, code or procedure regarding the filing of complaints of sexual violence. So, it is up to the police officer, captain or assistant who happens to be present when she is filing the complaint. Moreover, based on testimonies of lawyer, the geographic location of the process affects how the police deals with the victim. For example, a lawyer who is specialized in defending the rights of victims of violence states the following: “If the incident is registered in a neighborhood like Maadi, Tagamou or Mohandeseen; it is dealt with in a totally different manner than if it took place in areas like Faisal or Imbaba. In the first case, a place in which there is some privacy may be provided for the complainant to register the incident in a perfect manner; and registration procedures are dealt with in a more serious manner.” So, geographic location and economic status of the perpetrator and the victim – according to testimonies of lawyers and victims – affect the process and procedure of registration of complaints; among other factors. In many cases, police assistants act in a patriarchal manner with young women who are victims to violence. For example, the police assistant may suggest things like beating the man or bringing him to the woman to beat him so that she refrains from filing a complaint. Sometimes – according to testimonies of victims – the police assistant may advise the defendant to file a counter- complaint against the complainant’s. So, victims fear to spend the night in detention according to the law, and they withdraw their complaints against harassers so that they don’t endure more trauma or risks by spending a night in detention with women charged with criminal charges in addition to the trauma of the violence or harassment they already endured. This is an example of social norms and practices that affect legal processing of cases of violence and discrimination against women. So, all this directly and severely affects the rates of reports reaching the Public Prosecution. In an interview with a lawyer specialized in defending victims of sexual and physical violence, he stated that in his personal estimation more than 50% of reports and complaints of sexual violence don’t reach the Prosecution stage because of the fear inflicted on victims in police stations and because of several other hardships that women encounter in case they want to file a complaint of physical or sexual violence. Throughout the long reporting journey of reporting from the police station till the Prosecution, with its different stages and procedures, many women decide not to continue of the difficulties they face.

 

4-2 Protection of Women Subjected to Violence

Nothing in Egyptian laws stipulates the protection of women who were subjected to violence, women who are likely to be victims of violence, or women who receive threats to their personal safety and security. In most European countries, there are legal provisions that make it possible to issue an order called Restraining Order. This restraining order is mainly concerned with the protection of victims of violence, and instructs the violator to stay a certain distance specified by law away from victim. In Egypt, we don’t have a law to protect victims of violence before they are already subjected to violence.^[5] Moreover, in cases of domestic violence, when a woman reports that she was subjected to domestic violence; the police usually make her return her to the family home without taking any procedures. The reason is that domestic violence is considered in the eyes of society and law enforcement officers as a family problem. Even when there is a formal investigation going on, the state is often incapable of providing protection to victims. In many cases, the nature and techniques of investigation leads women to be subjected to violence again.

 

4-3 How Police Stations Deal with Detainees

 

Police stations are generally considered unsafe places for women, whether they are detainees or victims who go there to file complaints. In most police stations, there are no police women who are continuously present there. If they are, they usually exist during the day and there are no women night shifts. Moreover, many detention places for women don’t take into considerations the privacy of women. For example, in Qasr El-Nile Police Station the detention room of women is at the bottom of the detention building and is situated directly before the detention room of men. Assistant police men usually say sexual remarks and say humiliating words while they pass by the detention room of women. If there are sex workers in the room, rates of sexual comments and harassments automatically increase – according to the testimonies of lawyers and victims on this. Treatment of women detained in criminal cases is often more violent than that of political detainees. This is due to political detainees’ relative ability to file and submit complaints about violations they are subjected to in comparison to criminal detainees. They also have more connections and capabilities to publish about the violations they are subjected to in detention places; they have relatively better knowledge of their rights; and they can better communicate with human rights lawyers. We documented that criminal prisoners are continuously subjected to verbal violence including curses and insults. These prisoners are asked to squat all the time. When the detainee is from a lower social class, the greater is the humiliation and violence she witnesses. This kind of treatment is documented in both police stations and prisons. In many police stations, there are no female jailers especially at night. So, criminal prisoners are asked to conduct intrusive personal searches for political prisoners. This happened with Sarah Hegazi who was arrested on 22 September 2017. Sarah was subjected to physical assault like beating and threats, and sexual assault and harassment, based on the instructions of the Chief Investigator Officer who asked criminal prisoners to annoy and harass her. According to the lawyer of Sarah Hegazi, none of the police officers or assistants intervened to protect her. Sarah stated what she was subjected to in the records of the subsequent judicial investigation session before the Prosecutor. However, she was not referred to forensic examination because there were no apparent injuries.

 

4-4 Sexual Assaults in Police Stations

Probabilities that women face sexual violence or harassment in police stations are high, especially that there is no effective supervision from higher levels and that the treatment of women in detention places is totally left for the discretion of police officers and assistants without any controls. So, probability of sexual assault on detainees by female staff, male and female police assistants, and police officers increase. According to the testimony of a former detainee, she was sexually harassed in the police station she used to spend the probation period she was required to implement after her imprisonment. she said:

The Police Secretary (Blockamin) closed the door the two of us. He tried to grab my breast. When I shouted and asked him what he was doing, he said: “What’s wrong? I wanted to have a picture with you.” In another incident, he tried to hold and carry me. At another time, an officer masturbated in front of me. I was frozen and could not do anything. When I left, I cried a lot.

 

She goes on:

“At another time, men in probation gathered around me. One of them told the others to stop and leave me alone, so they quarreled with each other. Theoretically, men and women are separated in probation. But in order to humiliate me, they put me in a closed circle full of men in probation. No one of the police station staff pass by us except rarely. One of those men said: “She is mine tonight.” I shouted and told them: “I am going to show you what I am going to do.” I left. I found an officer in front of me. I told them that X and Y harassed me. The officer said: “They are right, sweetie.” He gave me a kiss in the air using his middle finger. So, I went upstairs to the Police Investigations Office, and headed to the police assistant and told him I want to file a report now. He said: “Ok, give me your ID and tell me who do you want to file a report against?” I told him that I want to file a report against the officer and the men in probation. He said: “We don’t register reports against police officers. Did you lose your mind? Go to the Chief Investigator Officer. I want to him and told me that I cannot file a report against a police officer. I told him that I have to file a report against the officer and the men in probation because all of them harassed me, and that I cannot discriminate between harassers. He said that he has a solution and that he will punish them for me but we will cancel the whole idea of the official report. “Otherwise, you won’t go home”, he said. I told them that I won’t go home. I actually stayed in the police station for a long time that day. He made all the men in probation stand in one line and humiliated them. Severe beating took place. I was told that they verbally punished the [harasser] officer. I don’t know if this actually happened or not. But he never did anything to me again.

In spite of the violations and assaults that happen to political prisoners in detention places, according to lawyers and victims assaults in general and sexual assaults in particular against criminal detainees are higher and severer than those against political detainees. This is due to the fact that criminal prisoners fear to file any complaints against police officers and assistants, whether to the Public Prosecution or via social media by their lawyers and friends. So, sexual assault against criminal detainees – whether in the form of sexual exploitation or harassment – is greater than that inflicted upon political detainees. A former detainee tells the following testimony about sexual harassment in detention places based on what she saw in her detention period in one of the police stations:^[6]

“When I was in the detention room, a police assistant entered and pushed one of the criminal prisoners against the wall. He tried to kiss her by force. He was literally groping every part of her body. When I screamed and shouted, he knew I am a political detainee. So, he left the room and didn’t get in again. At another time, I entered the room of a police man and used the personal bathroom of one of the officers. I found a condom in the bathroom. Why such a thing would exist in the bathroom of a police station? Some prisoners have to make sexual services or concessions in order to facilitate her life in detention. But if you sit down and talk to one of these women, you will find that this is torturing.”

 

There are no statistics on rates of sexual harassment or sexual exploitation in prisons,^[7] especially for criminal detainees. However, according to testimonies of victims and lawyers, police officers and assistants often abuse their power and authority to sexually exploit detainees in exchange for enjoying the minimum level of their rights and having some safety in the police station. When they refuse, they may face ill-treatment that they cannot bear.

 

4-5 Humiliating and Degrading Circumstances of Incarceration

4-5-1 Humiliating and Degrading Intrusive Searches

 

The UN Standard Minimum Rules known as Nelson Mandela Rules state 5n in articles 50-53 that “the laws and regulations governing searches of prisoners and cells shall be in accordance with obligations under international law and shall take into account international standards and norms… Searches shall be conducted in a manner that is respectful of the inherent human dignity and privacy of the individual being searched, as well as the principles of proportionality, legality and necessity.” They also state that “searches shall not be used to harass, intimidate or unnecessarily intrude upon a prisoner’s privacy,” and that “intrusive searches… should be undertaken only if absolutely necessary.” The rules also encourage states “to develop and use appropriate alternatives to intrusive searches” like strip and body cavity searches. They also stress that these searches should “be conducted in private and by trained staff of the same sex as the prisoner.”^[8]

However, searches are often used as a tool for abusing women detainees and for breaking them in detention places, according to the interviews we conducted with victims and lawyers. In an interview with a lawyer, she confirmed that: “In Qasr El-Nile Police Station, intrusive searches take place in a room with a huge window. Soldiers often stand to watch girls or spying on them. In other cases, female jailers leave the window of the room open for the purpose of breaking prisoners, or degrading or frightening them. A former detainee says the following testimony about intrusive searches:

 

“A female police assistant went down to the detention room. I will never forget this woman. She told me to take all my clothes off. I told her: “No one did this. Why should I?” She said: “No. we do search. Take your clothes off. Show me your bag.” She took my bag and threw everything that was in it in the bathroom. She told me: “There is nothing in it. Ok, take off your clothes.” I told her that I cannot take off my clothes because there are people outside. There was a big open window. We didn’t have any source of ventilation. We were in a basement. The officer was standing there. I told her: “Can’t you see that people are standing and watching us?” She said: “This is not my business. As long as there is a net on the window, there is no one. I can’t see anyone. I told her that I will now take my clothes off. She said: “Well, I will take them off myself.” She removed my t-shirt and took off my bras. She took off my pants. She grabbed my breasts like this and said: “Are these the breasts of a virgin? These are the breasts of a woman. You are lying to us.”

 

She continues her testimony:

They made me totally naked in front of a long line of soldiers. This was supposed to be a search. However, they were passing violations amid routine procedure. Lack of privacy allowed this. The police station didn’t have a place that is specified for searches, so searches were conducted inside the detention room of the police station. Moreover, the station didn’t have a detention room for women. There was something called the washing room, which was a place under in the basement with an iron door. It included one air filter so that we don’t die. When we were locked inside that place (35 women), we had to stand on one leg throughout the night so that we could fit therein. Until now I cannot pass from the street in which the police station is located.”^[9]

 

4-5-2 Disregarding the Privacy of Women in Detention Places and Humiliating Conditions of Incarceration

Women don’t have any privacy in police stations. Cells are entered for searching anytime of the day without considering the privacy of women. Because there are no female jailers or staff who are continuously present in police stations, the women’s cells are stormed by male staff for searching. This usually takes place at night when most women are asleep, laying down with revealing clothes, breastfeeding their babies or taking a shower in a door-less bathroom that has no door (which is common in police stations). In most cases male staff verbally or visually harasses these women, according to what was documented. A former detainee says in her testimony:

 

Any police officer or assistant has the right to enter the female detention room any time without any warning. You may be naked when he enters. So, he tells you to dress up if you are allowed to dress up. For example, a police assistant may just decide to enter the cell to turn everything upside down at 3 am while we are asleep or wearing improper clothes. He may make us stand up until the morning, or force us to soak all our furniture with water so that we cannot sleep. He may do this because he is upset with one of us or because he wants the nabatsheya (a prisoner who is charged with the task of administering the cell and supervising prisoners) to pay money. Anyway, he has the power to enter anytime to do whatever he wants.

She goes on:

In the detention place, there are no female employees who are present around the clock. So, a police assistant may enter anytime. Searches are conducted in one of two ways. They may bring the oldest detainee to search other women. Or, the prisoner searches her own body by herself. I witnessed both cases. Once, a police assistant asked me to search another young woman. I refused and told him that I cannot touch the body of a human who does not want to. He told me that if I don’t search her, he will search her by himself in front of me. He told her to take off her bra from underneath her jilbab. She took it off and threw it on the floor. He told her to take off all her underwear and any clothes she wears under the jilbab. Then, he told her to hold her breasts with her own hands, and to stand and sit down several times. Then, he let her go.

 

Moreover, there is no place in police stations in which women enjoy privacy even while they use the bathroom. Bathrooms rarely have doors in police stations. One of the detainees says in her testimony:

 

In police stations or prisons, you cannot have the bathroom closed while you are in. If the bathroom has a door, they make a big circular hole therein so that the nabatsheya can watch you when you are inside the bathroom under any justification.

 

Thus, women don’t enjoy the right to protect the privacy of their bodies. Their personal and physical space is always violated.

 

Regarding lack of privacy for women inside wards and the repeated storming of cells by police officers late at night, a former detainee in Al-Haram Police Station says:

You feel that he enters to watch us. Moreover, there is no door for the bathroom. It just has a curtain that does not cover anything. This happened with me personally. There was a search of the cell. I was taking a shower. The officer went to the bathroom. Moreover, police officers and assistants often talk in a way that can mostly be considered sexual harassment. In other cases, horrible harassments take place especially to criminal prisoners. There are officers who abuse their power to have sexual practices with prisoners, especially criminal prisoners and sex workers, who accept in order to have some of their rights or avoid the anger and punishment of officers. In these cases, this is considered an assault and abuse of power to receive sexual services and not consensual sex.

 

4-5-3 Gender-Specific Needs: Menstrual Pads in Police Stations

Gender-specific needs of women, like their needs of menstrual pads, are not taken into consideration at all. There are no menstrual pads in police stations. Lots of women cannot afford their cost. So, women have to struggle with lots of hardships in order to have menstrual pads. They get them from visitations if they receive visitations. In many cases, some detainees are deprived from visitations. Some detainees don’t have anyone to visit them. We documented that in most cases a woman asks for lots of menstrual pads if there is an upcoming visits for her so that she and her colleagues use them.  These pads are among the most important needs in prison because they are not available. In most cases, women have to put on pads for long time which exposes them to health risks like dermatological problems and reproductive system inflammations. They also resort to using the same piece of cloth for long periods and for many times. In other cases, a woman’s menstrual blood just leaks if she doesn’t have pads or pieces of cloth to use. This not only exposes her to health risks, but also exposes other inmates to these risks because there are no cleaning tools in police stations. So, the spread of germs and pandemics is more likely inside wards. A former detainee says:

Although the police station is different from the prison in some respects, both are class-based. Some people have money and others don’t. Once, there was a young woman who had her period in the police station. She was wearing a jilbab made of cloth that doesn’t absorb sweat. So, menstrual blood used to drip while she was sitting down. This actually led to the outbreak of bacteria because blood rotted on the floor. Of course there was no cleaning tools or brooms, and this affected the health of all of us in the detention room.

 

 

4-5-4 Conditions of Children and Pregnant Women in Police Stations

 

Women who are mothers or pregnant don’t receive any true medical care in police stations. In fact, they may be more vulnerable to violations by depriving them from health care. In the testimony of a former detainee in one of the police stations in Cairo, she says:

 

When I was in the Police Station of Qasr El-Nile, I witnessed a young woman who gave birth. She was cuffed during labor. She was cuffed in Al-Moneira Hospital. She totally collapsed and had a nervous breakdown.

 

Moreover, we interviewed another formed detainee in one of the police stations in Giza. She told us about the storming of women’s detention room following their objection to moving to cell that was so tight that prisoners could not sit down. They had to stand up all the time so that they can fit in the cell. There were many cases of shortness of breath among women. Moreover, there was a child that was less than nine months old. Her existence in such a tight room with lot of smoking exposed her to several health risks. This witness says in her testimony:

After we were moved to the new cell, prisoners protested against the tightness of the new detention room and its poor condition which were so bad that several cases of shortness of breath occurred. An investigator officer entered. He opened the door of the cell and flooded the whole place with water. The mother of the child gave her to me so that I take care of her. I used to take care of her sometimes. I sat down on a pillow on the floor trying to protect the child. The officers entered the place and broke everything in it. They flooded the cell with water. An officer took off is belt and used it to beat women. I was sitting behind him. The child was in an extraordinary state of horror. I told him: “That is enough.” As soon as I said so, it was hell. The Chief Investigator Officer told me: “Come here.” I gave the child to her mother. He asked me why I am here. Based on my experience, an officer poses this question in order to decide the degree of violence he will treat you with based on different factors including whether you came in a criminal or political case and your social class. For example, if you are accused in an immorality case, most probably you will be severely beaten. I didn’t want to say I came in a political case. So I said: “I don’t know why I came here.” I thought that if I told him I am a journalist or a political activist, he may tell me to go inside for example. I pointed at the police assistant and said: “Ask him.” He said: “I ask him!” He slapped me in the face so strongly. He also pulled me by the hair and literally tore my hair. He punched me in the face and everywhere in my body. He literally seemed like an Israeli who caught a Palestinian and tried to kill him. Girls screamed and the child cried. A moment came when I stopped feeling anything. I fell on the floor. He brought a hosepipe and flooded me with it. He started threatening me that he will relocate me. He brought my papers and discovered that I am a journalist who came here in a political case. So, he disappeared. The Warden of the Police Station came and kept on insulting me. I insulted him. His Deputy ordered that they carry me by force, and put me in the detention cell. I remember that my hair was damaged to the extent that I had to cut it with scissors. The administration of the prison refused to bring a doctor to examine me. After severe hardships, they brought a paramedic to check on me inside the detention room. I had horrible bruises all over my body. Three years passed since that incident, and I still feel numbness in the nerves of my face where I was beaten. Women usually don’t talk about this especially if they are criminal prisoners. However, I didn’t shut up. I spoke up. I filed a complaint and asked for witnesses, although there was horrible threats and pressure on witnesses who were also beaten.” ^[10]

 

These incidents refer to a pattern of violations against mothers and their children, and to inhuman and cruel conditions of detention they are put in, in addition to violating all standards and instruments on the rights of the child and protection of children and the right to dignity and bodily integrity. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) stipulates that “every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age.” In addition, article two of the CRC states that “states Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present CRC to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child’s parents, legal guardians, or family members.” ^[11]

 

5- Violations against Women in Public Prosecution Offices

5-1 Cases of Sexual Violence

5-1-1 How the Public Prosecution Deals with Cases of Sexual Violence

 

Women go through the Egyptian justice system in two cases. The first case is when they are defendants or detainees. The other case is when they are victims, especially victims of violence. Prosecutions in Egypt don’t have a particular code for dealing with victims of sexual violence – like cases of harassment and indecent assault, etc – in terms of protection of their privacy and protecting them personally. Moreover, prosecutors and Public Prosecution staff are not trained to deal with cases and victims of sexual violence. In an interview with a lawyer who is specialized in the defence of victims of sexual violence, he commented: “One of the violations committed by the Prosecution itself is that it does not pay attention to guaranteeing confidentiality of information of survivors. Their personal information, including phone numbers and address written in the police report, are available to the lawyer of the opponent, his family members and the prosecution staff. There is no mechanism to safeguard the confidentiality of information. So, family members of the perpetrator reach out for the victim within days. Young women find themselves confronting the family of the perpetrator or encounter them in front of their homes trying to frighten them or persuade them to drop the complaint.

Another problem faced by victims of sexual or physical violence is lack of any appropriate mechanism to file complaints in a way that takes into consideration the situation of the victim. There are no women in the Public Prosecution Offices. So, a young woman finds herself obliged to tell the story of an incident of sexual harassment, assault or rape to a a male prosecutor in a time when she is suffering the trauma of her sexual violation based on gender by another man. So, telling the story may be psychologically difficult for the victim.

Moreover, there is no mechanism to separate between victim/survivor and defendant in cases of sexual violence complaints. The victim has to wait, as well as the perpetrator and his family, in the waiting corridor for two or three hours before she is summoned. This exposes the complainant to severe psychological distress, as well as emotional blackmail or threats by the family of the perpetrator.

There is also a problem related to the place where violence complaints are registered. In some cases, registration of sexual violence complaint is done in a big room in which there are two prosecutors and each of them has a secretary. There is also the possibility that another defendant enters the room to register his statements before another prosecutor. So, the victim of violence has to tell the story of her rape or assault in front of five people including the prosecutors and defendants whose case is being tackled in the same room. The psychological and mental state of the victim is not taken into consideration at all.

Moreover, the manner in which defendants are displayed in front of the complainant is difficult and shocking. She sits on a chair besides the Prosecutor. The aggressor enters in front of the victim, and this sometimes happens in a surprising manner for the victim. This badly affects victims and makes them feel threatened again as a response to the shock they have been subjected to. Interrogation is conducted without any consideration for the psychological state of the victim and in a very routine manner. The victim then goes out to the corridor, along with the aggressor and his family, without any protection for the victim. This exposes the victim to some kind of emotional blackmail or threats by the family of the aggressor. In many cases, as a lawyer I requested the provision of guards to accompany us until the gates of the court for the protection of victims.”^[12]

Victims face another dilemma, which is examination by forensic doctors. The purpose of this procedure is supposed to be proving the case and helping victims prove they were assaulted. But in many cases, victims are dealt with by police assistants during their way from the Prosecution until they reach the Forensic Medicine Authority as if they are defendants or arrested. A lawyer who specializes in defense of victims of violence says the following about this:

Sometimes, when young women leave the Prosecution Office and they are on the way to forensic examination based on a letter from the Prosecutor, they unfortunately leave with one of the Prosecution staff as if they are arrested. Once I was leaving with a woman who was going to forensic examination, the employee – who came with her and had her report with him – was holding her hand as if she is arrested. He refused to ride in a private car and insisted on using the Prosecution’s car as if this procedure is being done against her rather than for her sake. The employee behaved as if she is a defendant who was given a remand detention for four day. The spirit of the way he dealt with her was like as if she is a thing in his custody. No consideration was paid for the psychological state of the victim.”

Moreover, the medical examination of the victim may be done in a humiliating way, e.g. making the whole body naked. The examination should be done in a way that is not humiliating or degrading to the person being examined. The examination protocol states that parts of the body should be exposed only in turn to protect, and that the person should not be made totally naked. However, some doctors don’t abide by medical protocols. This puts complainants under stress, humiliation and bad psychological state because they feel that their bodies are invaded not just because of the violations they were subjected to but also because of legal procedures.

 

5-1-2 Discrimination against Women in Judgements rendered in Cases of Violence

There is a huge problem that directly affects the course and stages of adjudication in complaints of sexual or physical violence, which is absence of women in the Public Prosecution or the Judiciary. This problem is not just related to the stages and procedures of registration of complaints of sexual and physical violence and assaults, in terms of consideration of privacy and sensitivity of the incidence of assault. It is also related to judgements rendered by judges in cases of sexual and physical violence against women. In most cases of sexual or physical violence, and after all hardships victims endure in order to reach the Prosecution and to overcome social stigma, most cases result in mitigated sentences as judges use the power of leniency. For example:

In cases of indecent assault which are considered felonies the sentence for which is from three to 15 years of incarceration, we find that most judgments come out around one year or six months. Although the minimum sentence in cases of indecent assault is three years, we rarely find an indecent assault case in which a judgment is three or more years of incarceration. On the other hand, there are lots of misdemeanors cases, like forgery, we find sentences of more than three years although these are misdemeanors and not felonies. Judges use the power of leniency to mitigate sentences in cases of sexual violence.^[13]

 

The right to use the power of leniency is an absolute discretion of the judge. There is no supervision or control in this regard. The judge is not even required to indicate the reasons for using such power. The Court of Cassation does not have the right to review why the judge used this power in different cases. So, the existence of women in judiciary will balance the use of leniency in cases of sexual violence. It may consequently reduce discrimination against women in the issuance of mitigated judgments in cases of sexual violence.^[14]

 

5-2 The Treatment of Women Defendants/Detainees in the Prosecution

5-2-1 Condemning Women Defendants based on Moral Judgements or Prejudice by Prosecutors

The work of prosecutors should be based on legal investigation with defendants or detainees regarding the accusations made against them, and within the tasks of their job as representatives of the law. However, according to our interviews with former prisoners, we found that there is gender-based discrimination manifest in asking them moral questions that have nothing to do with the case or accusations, as well as condemning these bases on their answers. For example, the main charge pressed against Sarah Hegazi was belonging to a terrorist group. However, most questions of the Prosecution were related to sexual matters according to her lawyer who stated the following:

 

Most questions by the Prosecutor were inspired by lesbian porn movies as if the Prosecutor was trying to find exciting answers to his fantasies. In the first investigation session at the Prosecution, investigations remained for around eight hours and were continued the following day. Throughout the sessions of the investigation, the Prosecutor tried to psychologically hurt her on purpose and to ask her about private matters and discuss her beliefs trying to mock and degrade her. In the first investigation session, the Prosecutor asked her if she supports aliens like she supports LGBTQI+ people. When she laughed at that question, he was extremely angry. He asked her to stand up and kept yelling. In another situation, he asked her about sleeping with animals “Is it ok that a lion sleeps with you?” Moreover, the Prosecutor disclosed his intentions at the end of investigations and stated that he was waiting for Sarah to confess being homosexual so that he makes accusations against her based on the anti-prostitution law. He said at the end of investigations: “You are clever. I was preparing a prostitution case for you.”^[15]

In another case, a former detainee stated in our interview with her that during the judicial investigation with her there were many questions which carried a moral nature with nothing to do with accusations made against her. She was accused with dissemination of false new. There were lots of moral questions in the investigation sessions. For example, the Prosecutor asked her if she drinks alcohol or supports homosexuality. One of the sentences said by the Prosecutor during the investigation sessions: “He who wrote this inquiries report about you did it very badly. Your morals are not as bad as this.”^[16]

 

This was repeated by the same Prosecutor in another case later. A survivor was subjected to an act of violence and assault inside the police station she was detained in:

 

When I was beaten in the station, my family sent telegraphs to report. My mother went to the Prosecution. She met the same prosecutor who conducted the investigation with me on the first day. He told her: “What do you think you daughter is? Do you think she is a prophetess? You don’t know what she does behind your back!”

 

Moreover, a former detainee stated to the ECRF that she was asked several personal questions by the Prosecutor that had nothing to do with charges pressed against her. For example, she was asked about her personal relationships, and if and when she had sex with people with whom she was in relationship. Questions even included where they did meet, and whether they met in private or public places, which have nothing to do with accusations made against her and the circumstances of her arrest as she was a political detainee. She added that prosecutors often abuse the psychological fragility of women in this situation and try to emotionally influence them so that they confess any information they are asked about.

 

5-2-2 Admitting Confessions Extracted under Harassment or Threats of Rape and not Considering them Torture

 

Article 55 of the Constitution of Egypt upholds the right of any defendant not to be tortured or treated in a cruel or inhuman way. It also stipulates the right of the accused to remain silent. It also stipulates that any statement proven to have been made by the detainee as a result of torture, coercion, or mental or physical harm should be considered null and void. Moreover, article 40 of Egypt’s Criminal Procedure Code states that “no person may be arrested or incarcerated unless by virtue of a warrant issued from the legally competent authorities. Persons shall be treated with dignity and may not be physically or morally abused” ^[17]

Nevertheless, actual legal practices don’t protect detainees from being tortured or threatened with rape or harassment. As a result of this, they make forced confessions as a result of torture. The Prosecution often admits confessions extracted under threats or torture. We interviewed a lawyer who defends women detained in political cases. She states that since the moment they are arrested, they are subjected to emotional torture and threats of sexual assaults like stripping them of their clothes, rape or harassment. They are threatened with being filmed while they are naked or threatened with being raped and filmed. So, these women collapse and confess things they may not have committed in order to protect themselves. According to the same lawyer, many prisoners in case no. 277 for 2019 – known in the media as “allahoma thawra” – were subject to horrible sexual threats of rape and being filmed while naked. Some of them were actually tortured. One of them stated in the judicial investigation session at the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) that she was subjected to sexual torture as the officer forced her to take off her clothes and remain in her underwear while she was being threatened with rape. The response of the Prosecutor was: “So, they didn’t rape you.” In the same case, the officer took off the clothes of another young woman and put his face in hers and his hands on her body and said: “Are you going to talk or should we start?” In this case in particular, horrible sexual violations took place. Nevertheless, the prosecutor merely wrote her words in the report of the session. He didn’t open a separate investigation in these complaints, but actually admitted confessions made under torture.

Moreover, women and girls in cases related to Sinai governorate in particular are subjected to sexual violence and threats, and even actual rape. This was documented in the case of one of the defendants in case no. 750 for 2020 in which there was a young woman who forcibly disappeared for four months in Battalion 101 in Sinai. She stated before the Prosecution that she was raped. She told the Prosecutor that she was raped, and that she suspected that she might be pregnant because of this rape. Nevertheless, the Prosecution merely wrote these statements in the investigation report and didn’t open a separate investigation in the incidents. Likewise, Dr. Basma Refaat – who was accused in the case of the assassination of the Public Prosecutor – stated in her statements before Cairo Criminal Court that she was subject to torture and this was documented in a video.^[18] She said that her confessions were extracted under threats of rape. However, this didn’t affect the decision of the Court which later sentenced her to 15 years in prison.

In most cases, the judiciary doesn’t consider complaints of torture stated by defendants in front of Prosecutors. It rather accepts charges made by prosecutors. The judge confines himself to examining the reports of inquiries made by State Security officers, and usually ignores the statements of women and their allegation that such confessions were made under duress, threats or torture.^[19]

 

5-2-3 Refraining from Conducting Separate Investigations in Complaints of Harassment and Violence against Detainees (How the Prosecution deals with Detainees’ Complaints of Sexual and Physical Violence)

When young women are arrested, they are subjected to threats of harassment and rape in order to force them to makes confessions. In many cases, these threats are materialized and girls face harassment, stripping naked or rape. In most cases, the Prosecution refuses to open a separate investigation in incidents of harassment or rape of detainees who are in the custody of the state. It refuses to perform its role as an investigation authority as much as it acts as an accusation authority. For example, there are complaints of ill-treatment and humiliating searches and harassment of detainees in Al-Qanater Prosecution office against Al-Qanater Prison represented in the previous Chief Investigator Officer, Amr Hesham. These complaints have not been investigated until now and none of the people responsible were summoned. Moreover, an act of harassment and indecent assault was committed by a women jailer called Hanem. The victim stated the occurrence of this incident in the presence of her lawyer in front of the SSSP. Her lawyer headed to Al-Qanater Prosecution Office to file a complaint about the incident, but it refused to register the report. So he had to go to the Office of the Public Prosecutor and submit the report which was referred to Al-Qanater prosecution. The complaint had the number of 9517 for 2019 (Public Prosecutor Petitions), and included that the jailer forced the victim to take off all her clothes – including her underwear- while she was putting on the prison clothes. When the detainee refused saying that her underwear don’t contradict the rules, the jailer forcibly took off her underwear, and manipulated her body and genitalia until she broke down and had an attack of severe crying. Nevertheless, this jailer was not given any criminal punishment or sentence for this act which is considered a felony of indecent assault. She was merely given a disciplinary punishment. The administration of the prison or the Chief Investigator Officer was not questioned about the occurrence of this incident in prison which makes them responsible too.

Likewise, there was the incident of the harassment of Malak El-Kashef by a police assistant who put his hands up her thighs and told her that if both she and his own wife took off their clothes he would sleep with Malak. El-Kashef’s lawyer reported this incident of harassment in the Public Prosecution. So the head Prosecutor of the Office summoned the police assistant and rebuked him, but he didn’t investigate the report or open a separate investigation in his capacity as an investigative authority.

In an interview with a former detainee in Al-Qanater prison, she said that she was subjected to harassment or threats of rape, filming and foot whipping, as well as being actually beaten and electrically shocked by State Security officers. She went to the Prosecution in a very horrible state. She had her period, but no one gave her any menstrual pads and she was not allowed to use the bathroom. She was left like that throughout the period of her stay in a detention place that belongs to the State Security Apparatus. She was also beaten, tortured and electrically shocked and no food was given to her. When she arrived to the Office of the Prosecutor, she lost consciousness and the Prosecutor gave her water with sugar. When she woke up, she had a hysterical state of crying. She tried to tell him what happened to her but she was talking in an intermittent manner. She said that she was tortured, harassed, electrically shocked, and was about to be raped. She was also threatened with murder and stripping of her clothes. The Prosecutor asked her to stop talking until she calms down and provided her with a bag in which there ware clean clothes and menstrual pads as she was covered with menstrual blood. This not only exposed her to health risks, but also had severe psychological impact on her. During the investigation session itself, no lawyer was provided for her although she saw her own lawyer while she was ascending to the Investigations Office.

Wafaa stated that she asked the Prosecutor to write down in the official reports the torture and harassment she was subjected to in the State Security Apparatus. The prosecutor wrote “she received a punch from the person who arrested her.” When she insisted on writing down everything that happened to her, the Prosecutor refused saying “When you have a lawyer with you, you can write whatever you want.” Moreover, she requested to be transferred for forensic examination to prove the injuries she was subjected to. However, the Prosecutor told her: “You are too young for this. Or, did they do anything else to you?” At the end, the prosecutor told her: “I am supposed to write all your confessions exactly as you made them in the State Security Apparatus. If this does not happen, I will return you to Abasseya again,” (i.e. he was threatening her to return her to State Security premises again.)

In another case, a woman who was detained in Al-Qanater Prison said that while she was searched the jailer put her fingers in her vagina although she knew she was a virgin. Usually when the prisoner is a virgin, the jailer or the one searching her does not put their hand in the vagina but asks her to stand up and sit down several times. However, this time the jailer examined her vaginally in a humiliating way. When she objected, the jailer beat and insulted her. This incident included assault on two prisoners other than the one testifying. The Prosecutor considered the incident an indecent assault. However, he didn’t investigate it or summon perpetrators to investigation. He merely instructed the lawyer to go and make a separate report to the Public Prosecution. The lawyer actually made a report of the incident at the office of the Public Prosecutor, and the report was referred to Al-Qanater Prosecution which completely ignored the report and didn’t summon the victim or the accused for hearing.

 

6- Conditions of Women in Prisons

6-1 Humiliating and Degrading Searches

6-1-1 Intrusive Searches

Bangkok Rule no. 19 stipulates that “effective measures shall be taken to ensure that women prisoners’ dignity and respect are protected during personal searches, which shall only be carried out by women staff who have been properly trained in appropriate searching methods and in accordance with established procedures.” Rule no. 20 stipulates that “alternative screening methods, such as scans, shall be developed to replace strip searches and invasive body searches, in order to avoid the harmful psychological and possible physical impact of invasive body searches.”^[20]

 

When women are under the authority of the judicial system in Egypt, they go through a number of difficult and humiliating procedures. These procedures start with stopping them and putting them in police stations (which are considered unsafe environment for women in general). They also include intrusive searching, which is one of the cruelest of these procedures not only because it inherently violate the sanctity of the body, but mainly because it is done in a way that violates human dignity of women (especially when searches involve sexual violence that often aims at frightening and abusing detainees).

According to Nelson Mandela Rules on the procedures of searching prisoners in rule no. 51, searches shall not be used to harass or intimidate a prisoner amd the prison administration shall keep appropriate records of searches, in particular strip and body cavity searches. Rule no. 52 stipulates that “intrusive searches, including strip and body cavity searches, should be undertaken only if absolutely necessary. Prison administrations shall be encouraged to develop and use appropriate alternatives to intrusive searches. Intrusive searches shall be conducted in private and by trained staff of the same sex as the prisoner.”^[21]

 

In an interview with a lawyer at the ECRF on intrusive searches, she said:

According to law, body cavity searches may be done to protect public order in prisoners. This is a common practice but it has to be done in a way that does not violate the bodies of people being searched. The point is that there are many alternatives available now other than manual searching. There are methods like scanners, electronic gates, etc that can be used by the administrations of prisons. This is encouraged by Nelson Mandela Rules even in cases of vaginal searches, which have to be done in a medically sound manner and by health care professionals rather than jailers. It also has to be done in an environment which safeguards privacy, according to Bangkok Rules which require that a warrant from the Prosecution has to be issued before subjecting a prisoner to manual intrusive search; and that such procedures have to be documented including names of those who perform it. However, intrusive searches are often used in Egyptian prisons for the purpose of breaking the will and dignity of the prisoner and making him/her feel that he has no control at all on his body especially that it became under the control of the state.^[22]

In another interview with the lawyer of a political prisoner about intrusive searches, she said that women face these searches repeatedly starting from the moment they arrive to the prison, and every time the prisoner goes out to attend judicial investigation sessions at the Prosecution and returns to prison.

Intrusive searches are the procedure that witnesses the biggest gender-based discrimination. In the beginning, they make women stand totally naked in front of each other. They don’t let women enter a special place for the preservation of their privacy. The jailer searches their bodies, and puts her hand inside the vagina and pushes more than once. If the prisoner is unmarried, she is told to squat and stand up three or four times. Sometimes, the jailer uses her hand with virgins too. This happened with a young woman who objected, so she was insulted and beaten by the jailer who also told her: “Don’t try to pretend you are an honourable woman.”^[23] Moreover, she was vaginally examined using a plastic bag picked up from the floor. Usually if the young woman being searched is a virgin, the jailer does not put her hand inside her vagina but asks her to move up and down. However, in that incident the jailer put her fingers inside in order to break and frighten her.

 

There is another incident that was documented when we were preparing this report. A woman submitted a complaint to the Public Prosecution stating that she was harassed during the search conducted while was being admitted to Al-Qanater Prison on the 23^rd of June 2019. A jailer called Hanem forced her to take off all her clothes even her underwear. In the beginning, she ordered her to take off her underwear in front of her. When she refused because the underwear are not contradictory to prison rules; the jailer attacked her, took off her underwear by force, and manipulated her genitalia until the victim collapsed and entered a state of severe crying. The victim affirmed this incident in the presence of her lawyer before the SSSP. The lawyer headed to file a report of this incident in Al-Qanater Prosecution office. However, it refused to register the report so he had to go to the Public Prosecutor’s office to file the report which was referred to Al-Qanater Prosecution which summoned the prisoner from her detention to hear its statements. The complaint had the number of 9517 for 2019 (Public Prosecutor Petitions), and included that the jailer forced the victim to take off all her clothes – including her underwear- while she was putting on the prison clothes. When the detainee refused saying that her underwear don’t contradict the rules, the jailer forcibly took off her underwear, and manipulated her body and genitalia until she broke down and had an attack of severe crying.^[24] After this incident, the administration brought searching machines that were stored and unused. They started to use them for searching political prisoners only in order to avoid any troubles. However, they returned to the old methods later. This proves that the use of manual searches is deliberate and aims at humiliating and degrading prisoners, especially that these tools exist but unused.

In an interview with a former prison in Al-Qanater Prison about intrusive searches, she stated that after entering a place that looks like a bathroom the prisoner has to take all her clothes off according to the orders of the jailer. Then, the jailer takes a plastic bag and put her finger in the anus if the girl is a virgin or in the vagina if she is not a virgin. Because jailers have no medical background, prisoners often have severe pain or bleeding because of this vaginal or anal examination. Moreover, another woman who was formerly imprisoned in Al-Qanater prison told us the following in her testimony:

I arrived at the prison with a group of criminal detainees. They left me until the end of the searching process. I went with two jailers, one of them was called Hanem and the other was called Saadeya. We entered the bathroom and she asked me to take off all my clothes. She started searching me by moving her hands on my body and breasts although I am totally naked and everything is clear in front of her. She told me to turn around. I did. She told me to bend down. I did. She opened my anus with her hands and pushed her finger inside. Then, she asked me to stand up and squat for three or four times. At the end, she told me to urinate in front of her. I told her I don’t feel the need to urinate, so she said “It is ok. We can stay like that for an hour.”

 

In an interview with a former detainee in Al-Qanater Prison about humiliating searches, she said in her testimony:

When we enter the prison, they check our health conditions and history so that if someone is sick the prison does not become liable for anything, and the admission of the prisoner is supposed to be refused in this case. Then comes the virginity test – or the so-called search – which is done by a jailer. She puts her hand in a plastic bag to do it. Of course, we have to be standing totally naked. She says: “Turn around.” She pushes her finger in the anus so strongly that if the prisoner is hiding something in her anus, it fells down. If the prisoner is a virgin, she tells her to stand up and sit down several times. If she is not a virgin the same plastic bag is used to put her hand in the vagina. The prisoner has to urinate in front of the jailer.

Bangkok Rules Commentary stated about body searches for women that no prisoner – regardless of gender – should be humiliated or be required to strip completely during a search. Such searches can be carried out by exposing parts of the body only in turn to protect the dignity of the individual being searched. Delicacy should be demonstrated in the case of women because they are likely to feel the humiliation of undergoing intimate searches particularly. The Rules also stipulate that processes of intrusive searches – in which clothes are taken off and privacy is violated – should not be done except in very exceptional circumstances defined by law, if done at all.^[25]

Likewise, Bangkok rules state that searches should be conducted by staff of the same sex as the prisoner. They mentioned that there are many cases in which body searches are done in front of male staff, and that prisoners may be humiliated during this process. Moreover, there are reports of self-harming following inappropriate or inhuman treatment during searches.

 

6-1-2 Searches of Cells

The laws and regulations governing searches of prisoners and cells shall be in accordance with obligations under international law and shall take into account international standards and norms, keeping in mind the need to ensure security in the prison. Searches shall be conducted in a manner that is respectful of the inherent human dignity and privacy of the individual being searched, as well as the principles of proportionality, legality and necessity.

 

Nelson Mandela Rules, Rule 50 regarding searches of prisoners and cells

 

 

Regarding the searching of cells, we interviewed a number of women who were previously imprisoned in women’s prisons like Al-Qanater and Damanhour about lack of privacy for women when cells are searched. The officer and the warden may search cells randomly at any time after giving a quick alarm directly before entering while women may be in need of changing their clothes, breastfeeding their children or taking a shower.

 

There is another case which is inspecting political prisoners by State Security officers rather than the administration of the prison. In a testimony of one of former prisoners, she said:

When there is an inspection on political prisoners by State Security officer – rather than the administration of the prison, they attack wards suddenly without any prior warning. They don’t take into consideration that they are men in a women’s prison. They don’t care if those women are properly dressed or not. They don’t give prior notice. If the jailer sees them from a distance, she comes to warn us that state security people are coming as they don’t give any warning.

 

6-2 Unnecessary Medical Examinations in Prison

 

Virginity tests are mainly conducted on criminal prisoners who are sex-workers
– known as immorality cases – as part of routine admission procedures. The woman has to go to a public hospital in which a doctor examines the genitals and of the prisoner and all the parts of her body and writes a report of this examination. Virginity test is defined – according to Gender Wiki^[26] – as “a process in which the vagina of a woman is forcibly examined to check if the hymen is intact in order to know if she is a virgin or not. Human rights organizations consider this examination as a form of sexual violence and violation of the woman’s body.”

 

We managed to interview a political prisoner who was sent to prison with a group of criminal prisoners. So, she was subjected to a virginity test and anal examination. The woman said the following in her testimony:

As much as I know and according to what I saw, virginity tests are done via the following process: We go to two ordinary public hospitals to which citizen go, and another hospital which is Al-Qanater Public Hospital (This is not the prison’s hospital. This is another hospital). You cannot say no. Anyone who says no would be punished severely. There is no such a thing as refusing. It has to be done. An authorization not to have this test may be there, but this does not mean it is not gonna happen. Moreover, there is special examination for women in immorality cases. It is like a general appearance check. I have been through it although I didn’t go to prison in an immorality case. I cried a lot and collapsed to the extent that everybody in the hospital sympathized with me because of my loud screaming. The manager of the hospital left his office and came downstairs and kept telling me: “Sorry. Please, try to bear this. You will leave soon.”

This is how it happens. The place is a big ward that has curtains but curtains are not long enough to cover everything. So, if you are standing outside you will see what is going on inside. A male doctor comes and he is disgusted from my mere existence in life because I am a prisoner. Such treatment is even better than the treatment of women in immorality cases. He orders me to take off my clothes, turn around, bend down, and open it up (i.e. the buttock). Then, he orders me to lie on my back and open my legs. Then, he tells me to hold the right breast and lift it up and the left breast and lift it up. Then, he asks if I have any tattoos in my body that he didn’t see. Then, he orders me to dress up and he writes the report. Then, a nurse comes and shoves a needle in one’s arm very harshly in order to perform a pregnancy test. Then, you make a pregnancy urine test. Even if you are a virgin, you have to make a pregnancy test.

A victim of virginity test filed a lawsuit in 2011, and it included an application for urgent consideration. The lawyers of Hisham Mubarak Law Center and El-Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) filed this lawsuit against the performance of virginity tests in the military prison for 18 young women arrested in the events of dispersing the sit-in in Tahrir square on the 9^th of March 2011 who were released four days later. The Court of Administrative Justice decided to admit the case and stop the execution of the the negative decision to examine the virginity of women participating in protests, which means – according to legal experts –refraining from performing these virginity tests to demonstrators in the future. Justice Ali Fekry, President of the Court of Administrative Justice, stated that the Court decides to “stop the execution of the decision to perform virginity tests for women in military prisons.”^[27]  Nevertheless, these tests continue to be performed in prisons, especially with criminal detainees because they don’t have the ability to report violations or don’t even know that these are violations.

 

6-3 Humiliating and Degrading Conditions of Incarceration

Regarding standards of detention places, Nelson Mandela Rules stipulate basic rules so that these places are suitable to prisoners during their stay in detention institutions in terms of health and human needs. For example, rules no.15 and 16 stipulate that “the sanitary installations shall be adequate to enable every prisoner to comply with the needs of nature when necessary and in a clean and decent manner. Adequate bathing and shower installations shall be provided so that every prisoner can, and may be required to, have a bath or shower, at a temperature suitable to the climate, as frequently as necessary for general hygiene according to season and geographical region, but at least once a week in a temperate climate.^”[28]

Conditions in Egyptian prisons, especially incarceration places for women, are catastrophic compared to internationally agreed-upon health standards. This includes poor conditions of detention in general, overcrowding of cells, and lack of good ventilation or nutrition system to preserve the physical health of prisoners. Regarding personal hygiene, prisoners suffer the outbreak of dermatological diseases because they are not capable of taking care of their personal hygiene amid the bad conditions of detention places. According to interviews conducted with lawyers and victims, the health situation in prisons is very bad. Prisoners are often prevented from taking regular shower during the first period of admission. Moreover, bathrooms don’t have doors but merely curtains. Most toilets in prison are squat toilets which are not suitable at all for older women or those who suffer health problems like knee Osteoarthritis or bone problems.

Detainees in Al-Qanater Prison affirmed that the conditions of incarceration are so deteriorated that they cannot use clean water. Lawyers – on behalf of their clients – stated that there is an unknown substance in water that causes hair fall and change in skin colour. Water itself is contaminated and dark. Sometimes it has insects. When women detainees try to boil this water, black lumps precipitate in the pot. This water is only used for showering, but it causes changes in skin colour, hair fall and sometimes dermatitis. Women have to use this water because clean water is merely available in the prison canteen for exaggerated prices that women, especially lower class women, cannot afford its monthly cost.

Moreover, prison food is so bad in quality and so little in quantity. Prisoners stated that prison food is not suitable for human consumption. Former detainees in Al-Qanater Prison state the following about food:

Food includes unpeeled potatoes that are not even washed and have mud thereon. It also includes boiled rice that is too hard or too sticky, as well as rotten or black beans, which are not suitable for human consumption at all. Food available in the prison canteen is very expensive to the extent that thousands of pounds per month are not enough if you want to eat good food. In the first period of my detention, a good daily meal costed me 800 EGP per month. Then it became 1000, and later 1200. At the time I left, I needed 2000 EGP per month to be able to eat a good daily meal. This is apart from water. If you want to drink clean water, you have to buy it from the prison shop for exaggerated prices. Living in prison is as costly as living at the Hilton.

 

A former detainee in Al-Qanater Prison says about health conditions in prisons:

The best you wish for in prison is to remain in good health. Over-crowding is horrible. People sit on the floor, in bathrooms, and everywhere because of the place of detention is so tight. I stumbled and fell on people many times on my way to the bathroom because of overcrowding. Water in prison is highly contaminated and causes vaginal inflammations for women. It could actually cause venereological diseases. I never opened the water tap and found clean water, although there is a tap of clean water for officers. You can’t even take a shower unless you have permission. Even in the hottest weather, you will be punished if you take one extra shower. They may make you spend the night in the bathroom or the discipline room. Clean water is completely forbidden in summer. In the winter it is available but intermittently. A huge number of prisoners uses one heater. So the heater breaks down, and prisoners often bear the cost of its reform. Women in summer need to take a hot-water shower for health reason (e.g. inflammations that are highly probable in prison). However, this is forbidden in prison. Nabatsheyas (women assigned by police officers to supervise prisoners) are also very cruel. They ask prisoners to pay money for the most basic rights. A prisoner who does not have money has to literally work as a servant for them, sweeping off the ward , washes their clothes, etc.^[29]

 

In the economic system in general, women’s economic conditions are harder than men. Moreover, work opportunities in women’s prison are almost non-existent. Criminal prisoners may work if they have the necessary connections but work is completely forbidden for political prisoners. So, women from lower or working classes suffer in prison in an unimaginable manner. Class divisions are flagrant in prisons of women. The most basic services of personal hygiene are considered a luxury for those who can afford them.

 

6-4 Taking into Consideration Gender-Specific Needs (Menstrual Pads in Prisons)

 

The minimum level of basic life needs like food, clean water and good ventilation does not exist in prison. So, having health care tools like soap, teeth brush and menstrual pads is a huge luxury that not all women can afford. Menstrual pads in prisons are only available via the prison canteen which is highly expensive. So, prisoners depend on what they get from their families in visitations. In cases when visitations are forbidden – as in the time of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic – conditions of prisoners become very bad in terms of the unavailability of suitable food and personal care tools like menstrual pads. In many cases, detainees cannot afford to buy menstrual pads so they have to work at the prisons in tasks like cleaning, washing or serving other prisoners for pay so that they can buy menstrual pads and other needs. In case this option is not available, detainees resort to old tools like using a piece of cloth and rewashing it or using pieces of cotton instead of menstrual pads.^[30]

All this affects physical and psychological health of prisoners. Nelson Mandela Rule no. 19 says the following on personal hygiene: “Prisoners shall be required to keep their persons clean, and to this end they shall be provided with water and with such toilet articles as are necessary for health and cleanliness. In order that prisoners may maintain a good appearance compatible with their self-respect, facilities shall be provided for the proper care of the hair and beard, and men shall be able to shave regularly.” Nelson Mandela Rules stipulates minimum standards that should be taken into consideration in detention places. However, they don’t explicitly refer to requirements of personal hygiene of female prisoners. Bangkok Rules on the treatment of women prisoners set minimum standards regarding requirements of personal hygiene of women prisoners. They state in Rule 5 – which is complementary to Rules no. 15 and 16 of Nelson Mandela Rules – that “the accommodation of women prisoners shall have facilities and materials required to meet women’s specific hygiene needs, including sanitary towels provided free of charge and a regular supply of water to be made available for the personal care of children and women, in particular women involved in cooking and those who are pregnant, breastfeeding or menstruating.”^[31]

 

In an interview with a former detainee in Al-Qanater Prison regarding menstrual pads in prison and how women deal with their periods while menstrual pads are not available or very expensive, she said:

 

In prison, most women from lower economic classes use pieces of cloth or baby diapers. They remove the adhesive part and cut it into a rectangular shape. One diaper remains for one or two days according to the woman using it. Poor women may buy one diaper for five pounds and use it for two days. This of course affects their health. Personally, I had dermatological diseases when I left prison. Some women put pieces of cloth. They fold the piece of cloth many folds and alternate sides. I had to do this for a period of time in which I was prevented from receiving visitations and had no money. This affected my health later. As a result of pressure and depression I suffered in prison, my period stopped for a while.^[32]

 

 

The EIPR launched a campaign on Period in Prison demanding that laws recognize physical needs of women. The campaign was made as some form of pressure so that the law recognizes physical needs of women. The campaign called on the Prison Sector in the Ministry of Interior to provide menstrual pads for detainees free of charge, in addition to improving structural determinants of health within prison facilities. The campaign tackled the economic burden of period needs on prisoners. It affirmed that prisoners rely on visitations to have menstrual pads. However, in many cases prisoners have to buy pads from the prison canteen for exaggerated prices or from other prisoners. This happens in particular with criminal prisoners who don’t receive regular visits. As a result of all these difficulties, prisoners have to wear pads for longer than they should. This affects their general health and exposes them to severe health risks. Wearing a pad for more than six hours – in addition to lack of clean water for washing and inability to use the bathroom on regular basis – exposes women to skin rashes, vaginal inflammations and urinary tract inflammations. All this puts women in severe health risks as this is the general state in prisons. The administration of prisons does not care about resulting health problems like dermatitis or vaginal inflammations. Moreover, suitable medications to treat health problems resulting from these conditions are lacking.^[33]

 

6-5 Sexual Assaults in Prisons

Regarding sexual assaults in prisons, many prisoners are subjected to sexual harassment. One of the lawyers said:

Women jailers verbally harass prisoners and they also touch them. There is a number of cases I reported to the Public Prosecution in the context of my work in which detainees were harassed by jailers. This was officially reported to the Prosecutor but it was not investigated. For example, there is a jailer called Hanem who is known to be a harasser. She verbally harasses prisoners and also touches them during searches and in other contexts – whether the prisoner is a political or criminal one. In one case, a criminal prisoner objected to such harassment and shouted at her saying: “What are you doing?” So, the jailer took off her slipper and beat the prisoner on the face.^[34]

 

There was also the case of a detainee in a political case in Al-Qanater prison who confirmed the sexual and physical violence she was subjected to. When she was detained, she was beaten, threatened, harassed and dragged on the floor by National Security people. She confirmed the following via her lawyer:

 

On the 29^th of November 2020 at 11 pm, three jailers came to her cell. They took her outside the ward, blindfolded her and took her to a room in which there was an unknown man. The man told her: “I am the one who will let you out of here if you obey what I say. I want you to answer all the questions I will ask you.” He was trying to recruit her as a spy so that she tells him the names of other people or give him information that leads to them. When she refused, he threatened her that she will not see her child again, and that her husband will be hurt. He also harassed her.

 

Moreover, while she was leaving the prison to attend a judicial hearing to review her remand detention order in January 2020, prison staff forced her to take off all her clothes and performed a very bad intrusive search for her. Then, she was dragged on the floor by one of police assistants from the searching room until the deportation vehicle. Moreover, the victim suffered severe bleeding from the uterus because the administration of the prison performed an unjustifiable and forcible examination of the uterus although she previously told then that she had a surgery to remove a tumor from the uterus. Her mother stated after her last visit on the 27^th of January 2020 that her daughter seemed very exhausted and could not walk by herself.

The Ministry of Interior replied to these accusations by denying that the prisoner was subject to any violations at prison. The Ministry confirmed that the she was in a good state, and that all forms of care are provided for her. It also issued a press release to reply to the allegations that the inmate was harassed and beaten saying: “Examination revealed that what was published in this regard is completely false. The said-woman is put in prison pending investigations in a certain case with others, Her health conditions are good and her vital signs are normal.” The statement of the Ministry of Interior concluded by: “All forms of care are provided to her just like other inmates. These allegations come in the context of the persistence of the media outlets of the terrorist MB group to disseminate lies and rumours and to agitate public opinion. Legal procedure was taken.”^[35]

 

6-6 Health Care Conditions for Mothers and Pregnant Women in Prisons

 

The UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners known as Nelson Mandela Rules tackle health care services in Rules 24, 25 and 27: The provision of health care for prisoners is a State responsibility. Prisoners should enjoy the same standards of health care that are available in the community, and should have access to necessary health-care services free of charge without discrimination on the grounds of their legal status. Every prison shall have in place a health-care service tasked with evaluating, promoting, protecting and improving the physical and mental health of prisoners. The health-care service shall consist of an interdisciplinary team psychiatry and dentistry. All prisons shall ensure prompt access to medical attention in urgent cases. Prisoners who require specialized treatment or surgery shall be transferred to specialized institutions or to civil hospitals. In addition to the health care service of a prison, a prison has to have hospital facilities that are adequately staffed and equipped to provide prisoners referred to them with appropriate treatment and care.^[36]

Regarding health care services provided for women, Nelson Mandela Rules states that: “In women’s prisons, there shall be special accommodation for all necessary prenatal and postnatal care and treatment. Arrangements shall be made wherever practicable for children to be born in a hospital outside the prison. If a child is born in prison, this fact shall not be mentioned in the birth certificate. A decision to allow a child to stay with his or her parent in prison shall be based on the best interests of the child concerned. Where children are allowed to remain in prison with a parent, provision shall be made for Internal or external childcare facilities staffed by qualified persons, where the children shall be placed when they are not in the care of their parent; Child-specific health-care services, including health screenings upon admission and ongoing monitoring of their development by specialists. Children in prison with a parent shall never be treated as prisoners.^”[37]

Bangkok Rules state in Rule no. 48 that: “Pregnant or breastfeeding women prisoners shall receive advice on their health and diet under a programme to be drawn up and monitored by a qualified health practitioner. Adequate and timely food, a healthy environment and regular exercise opportunities shall be provided free of charge for pregnant women, babies, children and breastfeeding mothers. The medical and nutritional needs of women prisoners who have recently given birth, but whose babies are not with them in prison, shall be included in treatment programmes.^[38]

These Rules are never applied on prisoners in the Egyptian Criminal Justice System. We documented that there is no comprehensive medical examination for pregnant women. They are merely asked verbally if they have any diseases or health complaints. They go to the hospital every two weeks to perform a formalistic follow-up check. In case the detainee is a political one and there are security instructions to discipline her, no consideration is paid for her pregnancy. We documented a case of a political prisoner in Al-Qanater Prison for Women who was put in solitary confinement pursuant to the orders of National Security. The jailer responsible for the prison used to wake her up at night every day to sweep the floor of the cells used for solitary confinement while she was pregnant until she had severe uterine bleeding. She stated all this later at the Prosecution, but no investigation was opened in this incident.

Moreover, the general situation in the mothers’ ward is not suitable for children because of overcrowding, poor health care, poor ventilation and narrow space. For example, one of the mothers in Al-Qanater Prison had to give her son to her family after just one week of admission to prison. The reasons were that the ward is so crowded that fans work all the time and children are literally stacked, according to one of the lawyers. If a child gets flu or cough, all other children are infected. That prisoner’s daughter became sick. She had fever and strong cough. So, the mother had to give her daughter to her family. Likewise, we documented the description of the mothers’ ward via interviews with victims. The administration of the prison does not allow the presence of children outside the detention ward, especially in the case of political prisoners for the purpose of making them suffer. Children are forbidden from going out to walk or play. They remain locked inside with their mothers all the time in very crowded wards. Moreover, mothers often sleep on the ground with their children because there are no enough mattresses for all detainees. This happened in the case of that mother who slept on the ground with her daughter and eventually had to give her daughter to her family in order to preserve her health.

 

All these unhealthy circumstances severely affect the health of women, especially pregnant women and mothers. Sleeping on the floor for example causes osteomyelitis and neuritis for prisoners especially those who already suffer poor health condition because of pregnancy, child birth and breastfeeding.

Even in these cases, the administration of prisons doesn’t provide any true health care for detainees. Former prisoners in Al-Qanater Prison confirmed that most medications available in the prison hospital are general and week pain killers. There are no resident doctors from different specialties in the prison. There is only a general gynecologist. There is no health care for pregnant women like ultrasound examination or similar tools for caring for pregnant women and mothers. The food given to mothers and pregnant women is not even better than the usual food supply in prison. Mothers and pregnant women depend on food they receive from visitations. Moreover, there is no psychological follow-up for pregnant women or those who just gave birth. It is medically well known that women during pregnancy and child birth go through different psychological states. In many cases, women have post partum depression and in prison they don’t have any kind of psychological care. We interviewed a former prisoner in Al-Qanater prison who saw there a criminal detainee endure severe violations while she was pregnant and then gave birth. The witness said in her testimony:

 

It was clear that the girl is psychologically unstable. She was pregnant. She had a c-section to give birth in very harsh circumstances. Her psychological status deteriorated and she started insulting and beating other prisoners. It was clear that this girl needs a psychiatrist. There was a supervisor called Sayeda. She let the prisoners beat her, drag her on the floor and pull her from the hair and clothes for a long distance. In the end, they threw her in a room in which there were water and sewage pipes. She remained there for a week although she had given birth since few days. All this happened because she was not psychologically stable and was insulting everybody in the shift. Throughout the period I was detained, I used to see this girl shouting and screaming. So, they just took her daughter away from her and put her in the bathroom without paying any consideration for her pregnancy, labor or anything.^[39]

 

7- Violations against LBTQI+ Women

Transgender men and women and queer people in general suffer different forms of community violence to an extent that threatens their lives, physical and personal safety. Moreover, they are being excluded by the circles of friends and family. This affects their psychological health in uncountable ways. Their suffering does not end here but it exacerbates when they pass through the judicial justice system for any reason.

 

7-1 Violations against LBTQI+ Women by Prosecutors

Transgender men and women in Egypt are subjected to all forms of social stigma. It becomes worse when they have to go through the criminal justice system. Probabilities that they face violations and assault increase when they exist in places of detention or even during investigations by the Prosecution. In the case of Sarah Hegazi – who is a socialist Egyptian writer and LGBTQI+ rights defender – she was arrested, imprisoned and tortured for three months after raising the rainbow flag in a concert for the band Mashrou’ Leila (Leila’s Project) in 2017 in Cairo in solidarity with LGBTQI+ people in Egypt.

When Sarah was being questioned at the Prosecution, the investigation – according to an interview with her lawyer^[40] – was full of sexual and humiliating questions that are inspired from lesbian porn movies. Questions included things like: “Is it ok for you to sleep with aliens or animals? Don’t you have a problem that people sleep with animals? Do you have a problem if a lion sleeps with you?” These were attempts to degrade and ridicule her. Questioning continued for eight hours like this. At the end of investigation sessions, the Prosecutor revealed that he was waiting that Sarah confesses her homosexuality so that he imprisons her and presses charges against her based on the anti-prostitution law. He told her: “You are clever. I was preparing a prostitution case for you.” In addition to accusing her of immorality which has nothing to do with law, her complaints of the assaults she was subjected to in the police station were not investigated. She was charged with joining a group that was established in violation to the provisions of the law and which aims at disruption of public peace and social peace (dissemination of debauchery and immorality according to the investigations). Her remand detention was renewed several times and lasted three months. Each renewal was for 15 days and all appeals against the detention decision were rejected. The only time her appeal was accepted and the decision was reviewed by a judge, Sarah was released pending investigations.

 

7-2 Violations against LBTQI+ Women in Police Stations

 

LBTQI+ women – including homosexual and transgender women – endure double suffering in police stations. Rates of violence they are subjected to on the hands of police assistants, prisoners or jailers are higher than average. For example, the Chief Investigator Officer incited prisoners in Sayeda Zeynab Police Station to beat and harass Sarah Hegazi for the purpose of frightening, breaking and degrading her sexuality.^[41]

There is also the case of Malak El-Kashef who is a transgender woman, feminist activist and LGBTQI+ rights defender. She was arrested on the dawn of 6 March 2019. Then, she was subjected to violence since the first moment of her arrest. She was slapped on the face, her hair pulled during her arrest. She was blindfolded and handcuffed since her arrest until she left the State Security building. In an interview, Malak El-Kashef said what happened to her during her detention in the police station which included different forms of violations and threats. The police officer threatened her to put her in the detention room of men saying: “We will put you in the men’s detention room and will make them humiliate you.” Malak totally refused this and demanded to talk to the Warden of the police station who put her in solitary confinement for two days without any communication with her family or lawyer. After many trials, Malak managed to communicate with her family. They tried to ask the warden about her, but he threatened them that she will be deported if anyone of the press or lawyers knew where she was.

Moreover, Malak was harassed by the police assistant who was charged with escorting her after her forensic examination. Malak said in her testimony:

After I left the room, I sat down waiting. A police assistant came and grabbed my thigh and his hand ascended towards the private part. I pushed his hands away and shouted out loud. He said: “You know! If you take off all your clothes and my wife did the same, it is you who will make me have an erection.” I told him: “Your wife will divorce you.” So, he tried to attack me but officers prevented him from beating me.

 

 

7-3 Violations against LBTQI+ Women in Prisons

In the case of Malak El-Kashef, she was taken to the prison’s doctor under the supervision of two male jailers. The prison’s doctor forced her to take off all her clothes at once in front of officers. Legally, the detainee should take off part of his/her clothes to examine a certain area of the body. Then, s/he should cover it to examine another area and so on. Malak then was taken to the ward assigned for strict solitary confinement. She was asked shave all her head in full. She was called several times by the name “Abdelrahman.” However, she didn’t didn’t reply to them until they called her “Malak.”

After 11 days, Malak was supposed to start receiving visitations. However, the prison administrations denied that any of her family members asked about her, came to visit her, or left her money and food. Malak said that this had a very negative impact on her. She felt abandoned. She said in her testimony:

After 11 days, I told them I should start receiving visitations from my family and lawyers. They told me that no one came to visit you, and no one came to ask us about you. Of course, this had a horrible psychological effect on me. I didn’t eat for the next four days. I went to my investigation session at the Prosecution very exhausted physically, psychologically and mentally. When I went to the Prosecution office, I fainted because of physical and psychological breakdown. There, I knew that they prevented my family and lawyers from visiting me. Lawyers had applied for visiting me but their request was rejected. My family had come to me but they were consistently rejected. After I went back to prison, I refused to take my psychological medications and refused to eat. I was in a horrible psychological state. My life started in prison. I was prevented from the time allocated for leaving the cell and taking a walk in the yard. My visitations were 10-12 minutes maximum. They used to take me out under a big sheet so that no one sees me. They refused to let me borrow books. Then, they agreed but whenever I chose a book they refused it for security reasons.^[42]

 

In the case of Sarah Hegazi, she was subjected to humiliating searching once she arrived at Al-Qanater Prison where a jailer forced her to take off all her clothes, and touched all the parts of her body in a humiliating manner. She was trying to humiliate and degrade her. Then, she was put in a solitary cell for several days and she was prevented from all forms of communication with the outside world whether by talking, reading or practicing in any activity like exercising. Then, she was moved to the women’s ward where the Chief Investigator Officer gave strict instructions that nobody talks to her or reply to her. In case another prisoner communicated with her, the prisoner was to be punished. She was prevented from exercising or walking in the yard outside the cell. She was prevented from buying anything from the prison canteen. Moreover, she didn’t get heavy winter clothes and was left to feel cold. She stated all this in the investigation sessions at the Prosecution office. However, the administration of the prison continued its intransigence with her by refusing to let her receive winter clothes in the visitation. Visitations used to take place in excessively restrictive and isolated conditions as well. She had to wait until all visitations are finished. Then, her visitation used to take place in the presence of a police assistant with a pin and notebook in which he writes everything that is said. He even asked them to talk clearly or loudly so that he can write the whole conversation and give it to the Investigator Officer of the Prison. To complete the bad conditions of detention she was in, the cell lacked any facilities to be suitable for humans and to respect privacy. The bathroom had no doors, merely two tied sheets. When she was allowed to have pen and a notebook, everything she wrote was reviewed whether by the jailer responsible for the ward or by one of her colleagues (based on orders). Sarah tried to overcome her intended isolation by drawing on the walls of the cell. However, the administration of the prison used to wipe all her drawings in order to increase pressure on her and deepen her isolation.^[43]

Moreover, in the case of H A who was arrested on the 28^th of February 2019 with E A and detained in unknown place for four days before being referred to the SSSP on the 4^th of March 2019 which detained him for 15 days pending investigations and charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist organization and using his Facebook account to commit a crime punishable by law in National Security Case no.179 for 2019. H A was detained in the women’s cell in Abdeen Police Station where he faced harassment and bullying from inmates and visitors.

 

 

7-4 Unnecessary Medical Examinations

 

Transgender men and women are subjected to completely unnecessary medical examinations for the purpose of abusing and degrading them. In the case of Malak El-Kashef, she said:

 

I was moved to Boulak Public Hospital. They made me do a pregnancy test although it is biologically unjustifiable. I went to a gynaecologist for examination. He wrote in the report that he was unable to determine if I am a male or female, and requested my referral to the forensics. Then, I returned to the hospital and entered a room with a doctor who examined me and made me take off all my clothes in front of the police assistant. He performed an anal examination to me. During all of this, I didn’t understand why this is happening to me. The case I was arrested in was not about sex work. So, I didn’t see any necessity for these examinations except upsetting and humiliating me.

 

Also in the above mentioned case of H A, authorities deprived him from his hormonal treatment. The Prison Authority forced him to be subjected to a comprehensive body examination, and an examination of his genitals without an order from the Public Prosecution although he had a certificate from a public hospital describing his case which required a sexual transformation treatment. The certificate stated that he didn’t go through any surgeries. From the medical point of view, the examination was unnecessary and constituted psychological and physical assault. He stated in his testimony:

 

When I was arrested, no one understood what I was. They thought I am an ordinary man. However, when I gave them my ID they were shocked. They called the officer and gave him my ID and medical report (I had a medical report of my medical situation from Al-Hussein Hospital, which is a public hospital at Al-Azhar University). Then they took me to the Police Investigations Department, blindfolded me, and handcuffed me. He asked me about my first name. I told him: “You want the name in the ID or the name they use to call me.” He insulted me and said that he wants the name in the ID. He asked me why did you stay at the house of X? I explained to him that I was kicked out from my home because of my health condition. I was staying in the house of the sister of X until I find a job and a house. He said: “So, you are not in a relationship with?” (Of course, he said it using other terms.) I told him: “Definitely no. The situation is just as I explained to you.” Then, he took me out of the room and put me blindfolded in another room for three or more hours. Then, they took me for interrogation again. Later, they made me return to the room I was in, removed the blindfold and tied me with the cuff to the chair I was sitting on. I remained like this for six days. They brought me in the morning sandwiches of beans and falafel and at night a plate of koshary. Every day, a different police assistant entered my room. Each one of them asked about my condition, and why my ID is different from what I look like. I used to answer them because I believe that it is better that people pose questions and try to understand than bully others.

 

He continued in his testimony:

 

Whenever I asked why we were here, they said: “You will know later. You are our guests here.” Six days later, they took us to the detention of women. The officer called the woman in charge of the room and told her to conduct a body search for us. She made us take off all our clothes in the bathroom and searched us. I knew later from her that the officer whispered to her and asked her to know if I am a boy or a girl. Since the moment we entered, everybody kept staring at us in amazement. The one who searched us was the only one who saw our bodies. During the search, I took off all my clothes and she watched without touching me. Once she told me that this is enough, I put on my clothes again. We were forbidden to use the telephone or make a phone call. Two hours later, they took us to the SSSP in the Fifth Settlement. When I went to the prosecutor, he told me: “Joining a terrorist group, unsettling the security and stability of the homeland, dissemination of false news and calling for demonstrations on Facebook.” I told him: “All this didn’t happen. I don’t even have a Facebook account for four years. I don’t have time to watch TV or open Facebook. For three years now, I am just taking care of my health and the procedures I should take.” He asked why I am in Cairo. I told him that I come every now and then to see my friends, and this time I came to find a job and for my therapy.

After we entered the deportation vehicle in order to return to the police station, we were surprised to find that the Prosecution ordered our detention for 15 days pending investigation. Then, we started mingling with people in the detention place and everybody there was asking me what I am. I explained to them and clarified everything, many – if not all of them – accepted it. Then every time a new person enters the detention place, she gets surprised that there is a man in the women’s detention place. Sometimes, they used to tell me in front of her “Take her and enjoy” in order to upset this new comer who used to be very scared already and think that I may do something bad to her as they said. Whenever police officers and assistants wanted to make me upset, they used to call me using my ID name. One of the officers gave me the name Reda because my name was the same as his father’s name. He felt that it is not honorable that my name is like his father’s. However, when I explained my condition to people who entered the detention room they used to calm down. With time, I became the leader of the room. Many women passed by me. One of them harassed me when I was asleep. My colleagues caught her and there was a fight. Police men came down and treated all of us with violence and conducted a search of the room in order to upset us. In many cases, obscene words were said to women in the detention place on because there is a man with them in the room.

No physical violence, i.e. beating, was done to me. However, I was subjected to psychological violence by police assistants. They talked to me very badly. Every now and then they come to our detention place to see what I was doing with women. The most common words they said: “You, boy-girl!” and “What do you have down there?” They once took three women, beat them up and hanged them so that they tell them what I do with women in the detention room. For a certain period of time, they prohibited us from turning the light of the room off so that they spy on us and see what we do. Once, I was going out of the room because I had a visit and one of them told me: “Congratulations, groom.” He also told a friend of mine who was close to me: “Congratulations, bride.” This was repeated so often. Anyone who came close to me used to be told things that have horrible sexual connotations.

 

There is also the above mentioned case of E A. After her investigation session, she was taken back to her detention place in Abdeen Police Station. Then, she was moved to Al-Qanater Prison for Women. After telling her to change her clothes into the prison’s white clothes, they made her put on her ordinary clothes again and return to Abdeen Police Station. She spent one night there, and in the morning they took her to Al-Qasr Al-Aini Hospital where they took her to a female doctor that asked her to take off all her clothes and examined her breasts, as well as genitals. Then they presented her to three male doctors in the Department of Andrology who examined her while she was totally naked and asked her to lie down on a bed in the examination room. Then, they told her that she will be returned to Al-Qasr Al-Aini Hospital to have Ultrasound and Radiology examination to check if she has internal male organs. She later knew that these procedures were made pursuant to the request of the female gynecologist of Al-Qanater Prison before admitting her into prison. All this was made without a decision from the Prosecution or the request of the defendant. So, these procedures are considered a violation of the sanctity of her body. She stated all this later in the judicial investigation session in which her remand detention order was reviewed. She said:

 

I don’t know why they do this with me. I am a girl, and my ID and birth certificate say I am a female.

 

Prison authorities forced her to undergo a full external body examination, as well as examination of her genitals on the hands of doctors in a public hospital against her will and without any medical reasons. This constitutes a clear assault on her body and her psychological health.

 

Because of what happened to them, several local and international organizations issued a statement on the gross violations to human rights standards to which E A and H A were subjected. Human rights organizations called upon the Special Rapporteurs of the UN and members of the European Parliament to urgently intervene and communicate with Egyptian authorities to immediately release them and guarantee their treatment according to international standards to respect their rights, especially their rights to physical safety and not to be tortured or treated in a cruel, inhuman or humiliating way. The signatory organizations considered that the subjection of H A and E A to forced body examinations is a violation of their right to privacy and violation of their human dignity. Moreover, these examinations are considered a form of discrimination against sexual minorities in Egypt, and a form of inhuman and cruel treatment that amount to torture. In 2009, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated that forced anal examinations carried out by Egyptian authorities are medically worthless for the determination whether or not a person has engaged in same-sex sexual conduct. It also considered these examinations as a clear violation of international human rights law that contravenes the prohibition of torture according to UN Convention against Torture of 1984. The report of the UN Committee against Torture in 2002 recommends that Egypt takes necessary steps to end all forms of humiliating treatment during body examinations. The High Commissioner for Human Rights recommended the prohibition of forced body searches imposed in some countries on transgender people. It also recommended guaranteeing their right to have IDs that reflect the sexual identity they chose.^[44]

 

 

7-5 Psychological Consequences of Violations against LBTQI+ Women during and after Imprisonment

In prison, physical impact is not the most influential in spite of its severity and intensity because of bad detention conditions. Psychological impact affects prisoners so deeply to the extent that it may take years of their lives to overcome the experience of prison. El-Kashef said that she was put in solitary confinement, prevented from taking exercises, and her visitations didn’t exceed ten minutes every two weeks. This means that she didn’t see or talk to any human being except for ten minutes every two weeks. Malak said:

During that period, I used to stay alone in the cell. There was nothing to distract me. This required tremendous effort so that I don’t go crazy. I remained for long days not talking to anybody. In other days, I used to talk to myself because I needed to hear my voice. In the sixth renewal of my remand detention, I reached the stage of nervous breakdown that I feared to reach. I totally collapsed and kept screaming and throwing everything in the cell. I kept knocking on the door until the wrist of my hand was cracked. I also tried to commit suicide. I broke a watch that my family brought me and hurt my hand trying to end my life. Then, I went to the prison hospital to stitch the wound.

 

Malak El-Kashef’s attempt to commit suicide in prison was stated in front of the Public Prosecution, as well as her referral to the hospital for treatment of wounds resulting from that attempt. However, she was not put in a sanatorium or any place that is suitable for her psychological status. Her release request was refused.

 

Strangely enough, the moment I left the Police Station I felt that everything has just started. Coherence and resistance started to vanish. So, I started feeling all the psychological impact at once. Five days after my release, I drank a caustic substance. During the six months following my release, I went to the Poisons Center seven times to be rescued from suicide attempts. I had depression before I enter the prison. I used to get treated and take medications. Until now, doctors increase my medications, and the dose and strength of the active ingredients. Moreover, I entered a psychiatric hospital last January. I felt I am not able to protect my life. The only solution I envisioned was to go and jump from the window. Post-traumatic disorder in my case was very bad and very strong. Once when I was in the hospital, I woke u and everything was in white. I thought I was in prison and got a very violent panic attack and breakdown. Moreover, I got in a state of OCD. I used to send to my friends the location I was in and photos of my ID. Any sudden voice or move used to freak me out. Every time I heard the sound of an ambulance, I thought that someone came to arrest me. I am still in treatment until now. I went to seven doctors in a year. They try new medications on my head. Sometimes I stay at home for months because I don’t know how to deal with the world. When I hear the sound of an ambulance, I get nervous breakdown. There are things that I cannot remember, things that I cannot forget, and things that I cannot comprehend until now.

 

Sarah Hegazi lived with PTSD resulting from her imprisonment and she could not overcome it until she committed suicide in June 2020. In an interview with Sarah’s lawyer on what happened to her in prison and how it affected her mental and psychological health leading at the end to her suicide:

In the beginning, Sarah thought that this is gonna end soon. After the passage of the first five days, she started feeling fear and despair. For a while, she tried to hang on hope. Then, I visited her in the prison for the first time after the second 15 days renewal. I started to notice signs of silence and withdrawal on her. She started losing weight and reaching a state of despair thinking that she will remain in prison for ever. After a while and because of silence imposed on Sarah by the administration of the prison, her linguistic skills started to deteriorate. She started to stutter. When I asked her what’s wrong, she answered: “I am sorry. I didn’t talk for a long time”. She started to be separated from reality and often distracted. I think she tried to escape her imprisonment for by dreaming of freedom. At that time, her mother was going through a difficult health condition. Her mother had cancer but Sarah didn’t tell her the truth about her illness. She kept on giving her the medications without telling her that this is a treatment for cancer so that her psychological status doesn’t deteriorate. A rift widened between her and her family and mother. This led to the destruction of her psychological condition. In the memo before the last one, she said: “You want to kill me. You already killed me.” All these factors affected her mental and psychological health, and she was already suffering from depression before entering the prison. So, her condition deteriorated in prison. She started to see imaginations and hallucinations. She didn’t have any friends except writing and the wall she drew on. After her release, she couldn’t overcome this experience. Until her death, her talking didn’t become normal again. She continued to suffer stuttering. She continued to have episodes of detachment from reality. She started to have very severe panic attacks that started when she entered the prison and until her death. She entered a psychiatric hospital in Egypt before she left, and entered another one after she left. She was treated with electric shocks because of the deterioration of her psychological conditions. In the beginning of her stay in Canada, her mother died. She considered herself responsible for what happened. She used to tell me that if she didn’t go to prison, her mother would not have known that she had cancer, she would have known anything about the sexual identity of Sarah, and would not have died.

 

Sarah left a last letter before she committed suicide. She wrote therein: “To my siblings: I tried to survive and I failed, forgive me. To my friends: the experience was harsh and I am too weak to resist it, forgive me. To the world: you were cruel to a great extent, but I forgive.”

 

Sarah Hegazi died on the 13^th of June 2020.^[45]

 

8 – Conclusion and Recommendations

8-1 Needed Changes in Law and Policy

1- Egypt’s commitment to the UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoner and Non-Detention Measures for Women Criminals (Bangkok Rules)

2 – Adopting policies and trainings on how to deal with incidents of sexual violence in police stations and prosecution offices.

3 – Issuing a law that protects survivors and victims of sexual and physical violence like restraint orders or defendants.

 

 

8-2 Regarding the Public Prosecution

1- Allocating places in Prosecution offices that are suitable for receiving complaints of sexual violence and investigating them.

2- Training deputy prosecutors and prosecutors on how to deal with women who are victims of sexual and physical violence.

3 – Guaranteeing the confidentiality of information of women whether they are victims or detainees.

4- Guaranteeing the presence of women in the Public Prosecution in preparation for the work of women in the Public Prosecution and the Judiciary in balanced gender ratio. The purpose of this is to guarantee non-discrimination against women in cases of sexual violence and the use of the power of leniency by judges to issue mitigated verdicts.

5- Taking basic needs of women into consideration in the Prosecution office, e.g. the provision of bathrooms for women whether they are defendants, victims or lawyers in the offices of the Public Prosecution.

6- Abiding by legal investigation standards in interrogating defendants and avoiding moral judgments.

8- Abiding by the constitution of Egypt in terms of dismissing confessions made under harassment, threat of rape and considering this torture.

8- Opening a separate investigation in complaints of harassment and violence against detainees in detention places.

 

8-3 Regarding Police Stations

1- The existence of specific places for the reception of sexual and physical violence in police stations.

2- Training the police on how to deal with sexual violence complaints and how to deal with victims of violence during investigations.

3- There should be women staff permanently in police stations in order to conduct processes of searching and supervision of detainees and to protect the safety of women.

4- Allocating detention places for women that are consistent with international standards in terms of space, good ventilation, and lightening, as well as  and the fact that cells should be proportionate to the number of women prisoners in the Police Station.

5- Providing a detention place specific for women who are pregnant or mothers, as well as adequate health care during their presence in the Police Station.

6- Respecting the privacy of women in police stations by providing closed bathroom rather than open ones in order to protect them from harassment whether by other prisoners or jailers or police assistants. Moreover, cells should not be broken into before warning women.

7- Providing at least one doctor in the police station making sure there is at least one doctor available in the police station, in case there is any emergency like cases of birth or bleeding.

8- Creating a mechanism to preserve the safety of women from harassment, sexual assaults, and abuse of power and authority by Police assistants, cell leaders, commandant prisoners or other detainees via the existence of constant supervision from the administration of the prison on prisoners, and male of female supervisors.

9- Conducting searches of women in a specific place that protects their privacy.

10- Providing clean water in police stations and enabling detainees to take showers according to Nelson Mandela Rules on the treatment of detainees, in addition to providing free and clean drinking water.

11- Provision of menstrual pads in the canteen of police station for the same prices applied outside.

 

 

8-4 Regarding Prisons

1- Abiding by the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners – known as Nelson Mandela Rules – regarding conditions of detention places in terms of space of cells, provision of clean water for drinking and showering, and preservation of the cleanliness of prisoners and cells.

2- Restructuring health system in prisons in terms of making specialized doctors available in all specializations, in addition to provision of all tools and equipments in order to guarantee the fulfillment of the health needs of women, as well as the presence of a psychiatrist in prison.

3- Provision of health care for women who are pregnant or mothers under the supervision of specialized gynaecologists either in the hospital or the prison or in coordination with public hospitals.

4- Finding the best means for the organization and occurrence of visitations for women by their families, especially in the conditions of the coronavirus outbreak. The prison is not equipped to fit the health, gender-specific and basic needs of women of food and drinks. So, most women depend on their families in the provision of the most basic needs like menstrual pads.

5- Taking into consideration gender-specific needs and the constant provision of menstrual pads for the same prices they are sold outside or for free; and considering them basic rather than luxury commodity.

6- Permanent supervision of the administration of the prison on jailers and how they treat prisoners, and recording complaints of sexual assault and investigating them.

7- Developing infrastructure in Al-Qanater prison. There were reports of the existence of insects, reptiles and snakes therein because of its locations near water, in addition to the weak structure of the prison and the administration’s negligence of needed renovations. This has huge effect on the heath of detainees in Al-Qanater prison.

8- Referring the jailers of Al-Qanater prison mentioned in the report to investigation because of their constant harassment of prisoners, sexual and physical assault on them; and suspending and punishing them according to the law.

9- Ending all forms and types of solitary confinement for women, especially mothers and pregnant ones, as a tool for punishment and disciplining.

 

8-5 Regarding Intrusive Searches

1- Abidance by the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (Bangkok rules) regarding body searches of prisoners.

2 – Intrusive searches, if it is truly necessary, shall be conducted in special place that preserves the privacy of prisoners, and by the prison doctor and staff of the same sex as the prisoner.

3- Body searches in this case should respect sanctity of the human body and should not subject the detainee to humiliation or degradation of human dignity. It should also be conducted in a way that preserves public health. For example, in the case of vaginal or anal examination the same plastic bag should not be used for all women and the one plastic bag should not be used for both cavities as this has numerous health risks and leads to the outbreak of bacteria and germs among prisoners. Care should be paid so that examination does not cause pain or bleeding as frequently happens in most cases because of humiliating and painful searching.

4 – Using modern alternatives to intrusive searches, according to Nelson Mandela Rules and Bangkok Rules, like infrared scanners, heat detectors, and electronic gates especially that these tools are easily available.

5- Investigating in complaints related to harassment during personal searches especially against jailers in Al-Qanater Prison whose harassment of prisoners is documented in this report.

 

 

8-6 Regarding Mothers and Pregnant Women

1- Abidance by Nelson Mandela Rules regarding the provision of health care for women and pregnant women in police stations and public prisons.

2- Medical examination and health screening of mothers and pregnant women while they are being admitted to the prison system using modern medical tools like ultrasound.

3- Restructuring the ward of mothers and pregnant women in the prison in terms of space, cleanliness of cells and good ventilation.

4- Providing food and drinks that are nourishing to the health of mother and fetus, and treating mothers and pregnant women with some kind of kindness in prisons or police stations, taking into consideration their difficult health and  psychological conditions.

5- Regular examination of mothers and pregnant women in public hospitals because of the poor capabilities of prison hospitals.

6- Keeping a health record for all mothers that documents their health condition and the condition of the fetus or baby, as well as health measures taken for them.

 

 

8-7 Regarding Medical Examinations especially for LBTQI+ Women

1- The report recommends that medical examinations are conducted based on orders from the Public Prosecution, and that they are conducted by trained doctors and staff of the same sex as the prisoner.

2- Medical examination should not be conducted except when it is necessary to do so. This should be done in a way that preserves the sanctity of the human body and of women and their privacy; and should not expose them to degradation or violation of human dignity like stripping completely. During examination, parts of the body should be exposed only in turn.

3- Stopping all practices of anal examinations as the penetration of a person’s body by any organ or tool without their consent is considered rape and a form of torture and violates human dignity.

4- Considering forced anal examinations torture according to the comments of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in 2009 which considered these examinations a clear violation of international human rights law and of the prohibition of torture according to the UN Convention against Torture of 1984.

5- Allocating special places for the detention of transgender men and women in order to protect them from any assault or sexual or physical violations in prisons, in addition to allowing them to continue their hormonal treatment and medical and psychological follow-up.

[1] Women in detention: a guide to gender-sensitive monitoring, accessible here https://cdn.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/women-in-detention-2nd-ed-v7.pdf

[2] Guidance Document and Index of Implementation on the UN Bangkok Rules, available via, https://www.penalreform.org/resource/bangkok-rules-guidance-document-index-implementation/

[3] Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak, 15 January 2008, A/HRC/7/3;
Women in detention: a guide to gender-sensitive monitoring, accessible here https://cdn.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/women-in-detention-2nd-ed-v7.pdf

[4] An interview with a lawyer who works on cases of physical and sexual violence about cases of sexual violence in Egypt and the protection of victims of violence – 25 February 2021.

[5] An interview with a lawyer who works on cases of physical and sexual violence about cases of sexual violence in Egypt and the protection of victims of violence –February 2021.

[6] Names of police stations are anonymized when victims request this as they fear retaliation.

[7] Sexual exploitation is the actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power or trust for sexual purposes, UNITED NATIONS PROTOCOL ON THE PROVISION OF ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS OF SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE, 12 December 2019, accessible at https://www.un.org/en/pdfs/UN%20Victim%20Assistance%20Protocol_English_Final.pdf

[8] Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the Nelson Mandela Rules, December 2015, accessible at https://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/Nelson_Mandela_Rules-E-ebook.pdf

[9] From an interview with a former detainee in one of the police stations in Cairo about conditions of women in police stations and intrusive searches, January 2021.

[10] An interview with a former detainee (A Z) regarding violations she was subjected to in the Egyptian criminal justice system, February 2021.

[11]  The Convention of the Rights of the Child, accessible at https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/convention-text

[12] An interview with a lawyer working in cases of sexual and physical violence, February 2021.

[13] From an interview with a lawyer who work in cases of sexual and physical violence about discrimination against women in judgments rendered in cases of violence, February 221.

[14] An interview with a lawyer who works with victims of sexual and physical violence, February 2021.

[15] An interview with the lawyer of Sarah Hegazi, February 2021.

[16] From an interview with a former prisoner in Al-Qanater Prison, January 2021.

[17] The Constitution of Egypt of 2019, article 55, accessible at https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Egypt_2019?lang=en

All those who are apprehended, detained or have their freedom restricted shall be treated in a way that preserves their dignity. They may not be tortured, terrorized, or coerced. They may not be physically or mentally harmed, or arrested and confined in designated locations that are appropriate according to humanitarian and health standards. The state shall provide means of access for those with disabilities. Any violation of the above is a crime and the perpetrator shall be punished under the law. The accused possesses the right to remain silent. Any statement that is proven to have been given by the detainee under pressure of any of that which is stated above, or the threat of such, shall be considered null and void.

[18] A video for Basma Refaat in which she states before Cairo Criminal Court that she was tortured, 17 September 2016, accessible at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o7bzOBITdo

[19] From an interview with a lawyer who worked in cases of women detained in political cases, February 2021.

[20] Guidance Document on the United Nations Rules on the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (The Bangkok Rules), Rule no. 19, 22 December 2010 accessible at https://cdn.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/PRI-TIJ-Guidance-Document-on-Bangkok-Rules-October-2013.pdf

[21] The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules), Rules 51 and 52 on Searches of Prisoners, 17 December 2015, accessible at https://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/Nelson_Mandela_Rules-E-ebook.pdf

[22] An interview with a lawyer in the ECRF on the conditions of women in the criminal justice system in Egypt, January 2021.

[23] An interview with the lawyer of a political prisoner on humiliating and degrading searches, January 2021.

[24] From an interview about humiliating and degrading searches, February 2021.

[25] Guidance Document on the United Nations Rules on the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (The Bangkok Rules), Rule no. 19, 22 December 2010 accessible at https://cdn.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/PRI-TIJ-Guidance-Document-on-Bangkok-Rules-October-2013.pdf

[26] Gender Wiki, Definition of Virginity Test, 2019, accessible at https://genderiyya.xyz/wiki/%D9%83%D8%B4%D9%81_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B0%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9 (in Arabic)

[27] Decision of the Court of Administrative Justice to stop virginity tests for detainees in military prisons, 27 December 2011, accessible at https://arabic.arabianbusiness.com/politics-economics/2011/dec/27/66788 (in Arabic)

[28] Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the Nelson Mandela Rules, Rules 15-16, 17 December 2015, accessible at https://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/Nelson_Mandela_Rules-E-ebook.pdf

[29] From an interview with a former detainee in Al-Qanater Prison about humiliating and degrading conditions of incarceration, February 2021.

[30] From an interview with a former prisoner in Al-Qanater Prison about menstrual pads in prisons, January 2021.

[31] Guidance Document on the United Nations Rules on the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (The Bangkok Rules), Rule no. 5, 22 December 2010 accessible at https://cdn.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/PRI-TIJ-Guidance-Document-on-Bangkok-Rules-October-2013.pdf

[32] From an interview on conditions of women in prisons including the availability of  menstrual pads in detention places conducted for the purpose of preparing this report, February 2021.

[33] On International Women’s Day, “Period in Prison”, EIPR, 8 March 2019 accessible at https://eipr.org/en/press/2019/03/international-womens-day-periods-prison

[34] An interview with a lawyer who worked in defending women political prisoners about sexual assault in prisons, February 2021.

[35] Daarb Website, Six Human Rights Organizations demand Investigating the Report on Violations against Solafa Magdy, 9 February 2021, accessible at https://daaarb.com/6%D9%85%D9%86%D8%B8%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%AD%D9%82%D9%88%D9%82%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%86%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%B7%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%A6%D9%88%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%B3%D9%84/ (at Arabic)

[36] Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the Nelson Mandela Rules, Rules 24-25, 17 December 2015, accessible at https://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/Nelson_Mandela_Rules-E-ebook.pdf

[37] Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the Nelson Mandela Rules, Rules 28-29 about provision of health care for prisoners who are mothers r pregnant, 17 December 2015, accessible at https://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/Nelson_Mandela_Rules-E-ebook.pdf

[38] Guidance Document on the United Nations Rules on the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (The Bangkok Rules), Rule 48, 22 December 2010 accessible at https://cdn.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/PRI-TIJ-Guidance-Document-on-Bangkok-Rules-October-2013.pdf

[39] From an interview with a former detainee in Al-Qanater Police Station on the conditions of mothers and pregnant women in prisons, January 2021.

[40] From an interview with the lawyer of Sarah Hegazi about what she has been through during her detention, February 2021.

[41] From an interview with the lawyer on Sarah Hegazi about what she has been through during her detention, February 2021.

[42] From an interview with Malak El-Kashef about the conditions of her detention, February 2021.

[43] From an interview with the lawyer of Sarah Hegazi about the conditions of her detention, February 2021.

[44] Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Urgent appeal for the release of Eman Al-Helw and Hossam Ahmad, 20 November 2019, accessible at https://cihrs.org/egypt-urgent-appeal-for-the-release-of-eman-al-helw-and-hossam-ahmad/?lang=en

[45] From an interview with the lawyer of Sarah Hegazi about the psychological impact of her arrest leading and her suicide, February 2021.