Samira Ibrahim and Rasha Abdel-Rahmen
SAMIRA AND RASHA’S STORY
On 9 March 2011, Samira Ibrahim Mohamed Mahmoud and Rasha Ali Abdel-Rahman were arrested by military officials in Tahrir Square in central Cairo for their participation in a protest during the Egyptian popular uprising.
The protest concerned demands for a new Constitution, the removal of the Prime Minister as well as highlighting the military’s brutal dispersal of a prior peaceful demonstration on 25 February 2011.
On 11 February 2011, the Supreme Court of the Armed Forces (SCAF) assumed power after the abdication of President Hosni Mubarak.
During their arrest, Samira and Rasha were verbally abused by soldiers, who called them prostitutes and swore at them. Samira was also beaten and given electric shocks with a Taser.
After their arrest, they allege that they were held in a military prison. They claim that they were both, in separate incidents, forcibly stripped of their clothes and in full view of male military officers, who took pictures of them and laughed about it.
When Samira asked a prison guard to close the door, she alleges that a soldier subjected her to electric shocks in her stomach using an electric baton.
After their clothes were removed, a military doctor also conducted forced genital examinations with his bare hands without their consent, purportedly to verify their “virginity”. No explanation was given for the examinations.
Shamira and Rasha were also verbally abused during the incidents and Rasha was threatened with rape.
Both were given one year’s suspended prison sentences by a military judge on trumped-up charges after a short hearing, in which they did not have legal representation.
ACTION FOR JUSTICE
In March 2012, a military court found the doctor accused of performing the forced genital examinations innocent of all charges.
In the wake of this decision, Samira and Rasha brought their case before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), as the main human rights body in Africa. Their cases were filed by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and INTERIGHTS. REDRESS joined the case in 2013.
THE OUTCOMES
In a decision adopted during the ACHPR’s 3-23 May 2023 session, and made public in November 2025, the African Commission found that the physical and mental pain inflicted, resulting from the forceful nature of the examination, and the humiliation and social harm of such practice, constituted cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment in violation of Article 5 of the African Charter. The African Commission further found that Egypt’s failure to effectively investigate the ill-treatment the women suffered and prosecute the perpetrators amounted to a further violation of Article 5 of the African Charter as well as Egypt’s obligations under international law.
Beside calling for the immediate eradication of forced genital examinations, the ACHPR requested Egypt to reform its Military Prison Procedures Code to ensure strict safeguards for prisoners’ bodily integrity and privacy rights. The ACHPR urged Egypt to prosecute the perpetrators who were engaged in the ill-treatment of the two women and requested the Egyptian State to compensate each of them with 100,000 Egyptian Pounds for the physical and emotional damages and trauma they suffered.
Commenting on the decision, Alejandra Vicente, Head of Law at REDRESS, said: “The so-called practice of virginity test is blatant form of sexual torture that specifically targets women, and leaves survivors with deep, long-term trauma. The African Commission’s decision is a critical step towards upholding the absolute prohibition of torture, including sexual torture, across the region.”
Lobna Darwish, EIPR director for women’s rights and gender issues, added: “We commend the courage and perseverance of the women who refused to accept impunity for the egregious crimes they suffered, for which Egyptian authorities never apologised or even acknowledged 15 years later. This important decision provides not only long-overdue vindication and remedy for the complainants, but also an important contribution towards the full criminalisation of the heinous practice of ‘virginity’ testing in Africa and elsewhere in the world.”
QUICK FACTS
- Case Name: Samira Ibrahim and Rasha Abdel-Rahman v. Egypt
- Court/Body: African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR).
- Date Filed: 27 February 2014
- Current Status: Decision reached in May 2023
- Legal representation: Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and REDRESS
Photo by: Al Jazeera English CC 2.0