The Egyptian regime and the security authorities adopt a specific approach in dealing with women prisoners, especially human rights activists, journalists, and political opponents. Over the past seven years, Egypt’s prisons, especially the notorious Damanhour prison and al-Qanater women’s prison, have witnessed an increase in the number of women prisoners as well as the high level of abuse and ill-treatment in dealing with them, including strip searches, beating, insults, and periodic deprivation of personal belongings. According to the last update from the Till The Last Prisoner campaign, there are more than 200 female political prisoners in Egypt’s prisons. This article by the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy provides preliminary documentation of the conditions of detention and daily suffering inside women’s prisons in Egypt while analyzing the underlying reasons for Egypt’s specific approach to women prisoners.

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