Bring Back Our Girls -- in Egypt?

In the wake of the large-scale search operation for over 200 abducted Chibok school girls in Nigeria, a similar campaign has emerged in Egypt.

The campaign "Bring Back Our Coptic Girls Egypt," started in early May 2014, puts the spotlight on the many young Coptic Orthodox girls who have also been abducted.

Activists claim that approxmately 500 girls have been abducted just since 2011, and the groups has now made several posters picturing the young girls who are missing. One aspect of this campaign is unique in Egypt: The name of the abductor - provided by witnesses or family – are sometimes also published on the poster. Police and national security authorities show remarkably little interest in the cases, and almost no one is ever arrested.

The abduction of over 270 girls from a school for girls in Nigeria's Borno state three weeks ago sparked the worldwide campaign, “Bring back our girls.” Most of the Nigerian victims are in fact Christians, but some Muslims were among those taken. Nigerian journalists who have written about the case told TMP that they were asked not to mention the children's religious affiliation.   Only in recent days have CNN and other media mentioned that the abducted are Christians, only after Boko Haram claimed to have released several girls because they converted to Islam.

Now this group of Egyptian activists, which includes Christians and Muslims, has started the campaign "The Association of Victims of Enforced Disappearances and Abductions" expose this sad and mostly hidden social ill. The activists use pages on Facebook - facebook.com/AVAED and facebook.com/freecopts - with several posters trumpeting their claims.

For years Coptic Christians living in the rural parts of Egypt have reported their young girls being abducted, and according to their relatives, the girls have been "forced into marriage" with Muslim boys. Activists report numbers as high as 500 abducted girls, just since the 2011 "revolution."

This number is likely exaggerated, but the posters give clear evidence to a number of young girls whose families claim they wer abducted.

In previous years, allegations about young Muslim boys getting money, jobs, and even an apartment if they married Christian girls were rampant.

Friends who sold books and magazines at fairs at universities - including the famous Islamic institution Al - Azhar in Cairo - spoke to this reporter of young girls with covered heads and often also faces (niqab) who very quietly whispered they were Christians. 

Then stories surfaced of teenage love, but also of abduction, promises of a better life, money, etc. These girls were married, but experienced a high degree of restriction and captivity. A few girls told how they - often hidden behind brush and trees - had witnessed their own "funeral." 

Their families could not bear the shame, and so chose a public "funeral" ceremony, which also was a signal: Your choice has made you a stranger to your family.