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Egypt: Christian woman kidnapped by two veiled women, converted to Islam

April 29, 2020

Persecution of Christians in Egypt: forced conversion of Christian women in Egypt is an ongoing problem, and reports of it continue to increase. Most of the victims and their families charge that Egyptian police frequently refuse to help the victims, and even side with the kidnappers.

Egypt’s small and courageous Greek Orthodox Christian community is as vulnerable to this persecution as are the rest of Egypt’s Christians. The ongoing mistreatment of Coptic Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Christians in Egypt is an issue of immense importance that nevertheless receives scant attention from the UN or international human rights organizations. Please pray that the Christian community in Egypt will be able to endure this martyrdom and experience a resurrection, and that relief will come to this courageous and long-suffering Christian community.

For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in Egypt, see here.

“Christian Woman Kidnapped, Converted,” International Christian Concern, April 28, 2020:

04/28/2020 Egypt (International Christian Concern) – An Egyptian Christian woman, Rania Abd al-Meseh, was kidnapped on April 23rd by two veiled women in Monufia Governorate. A video began circulating three days later of Rania announcing that she has converted to Islam. The video has been met with alarm by several Christians, who observe that her body language during the video appears that she is under great stress and saying the words under duress.

Rania is the mother of three daughters and her social media shows frequent posting of Christian material. Her brother Remon told local media that, “My sister was wearing the cross necklace and left home. So if she was wanting to convert to Islam, she would have left the necklace home.”

Christian women are often kidnapped in Egypt by extremists who force them to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men. It is difficult to bring these women home, and should their return be facilitated, resume life as before because of the regional honor-shame culture. In some cases, Christian women do indeed convert and marry Muslim men of their own free will, oftentimes further complicating these problems. Many impacted families do not feel the police seriously investigate these kidnappings nor hold the abductors accountable….

Photo by Faris knight – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15873786