Fatal stabbings highlight violence against women in Egypt

Mary Magdy, a Coptic Christian woman, speaks during an interview with Reuters TV, at her home in Cairo, Egypt July 7, 2022. A wave of high-profile domestic violence cases in Egypt has cast light on what critics describe as failures by authorities and the legal system in protecting at-risk women. REUTERS/Ahmed Fahmy

CAIRO (Reuters) - A series of violent crimes against women in Egypt has drawn attention to gaps in legal and social protections that leave female citizens vulnerable to attacks and harassment, victims and activists say.

The highest profile case was the murder in late June of 21-year-old student Nayera Ashraf, who was stabbed 19 times outside the gates of a university in Mansoura, north of Cairo. It emerged that the man convicted for her killing, Mohamed Adel, had been harassing her for almost a year after she rejected his marriage proposal.