A Press Release About Launching (We are Killed Because We are Women) Campaign

Cairo, November, 2022

Tadwein for Gender Studies conducted a new study about Femicide documenting a total of 151 cases of murder and suicide of women and girls at different age groups during the period from October 2021 to October 2022. In accordance with the 16 days of activism this year, Tadwein is launching a campaign titled “We are Killed Because We are Women”. The campaign is to shed light on the increasing cases of femicide in Egypt through publishing stories of women and girls who were deliberately killed or committed suicide because they are females.

Also, the campaign includes series of awareness raising sessions about child marriage and a medical caravan in the governorates of Fayoum, Giza and Qalyubia. The results of the new study on femicide will be published and disseminated during the campaign.

The World Health Organization defines femicide as the intentional killing of women or girls simply because they are female. Femicide is committed mostly by men, but sometimes killing of women or girls may occur by a female family member. Most cases of femicide are committed by the current or former husbands/intimate partners. The findings of United Nations Drugs and Crime Agency (UNODC) reported that around 47,000 women or girls worldwide were killed in 2020 by their intimate partners or other family members.

Over the past decade, the overall number of female femicide has largely remained unchanged, underscoring the urgency to prevent and respond to this scourge with stronger actions. Even though these numbers are alarmingly high, the true scale of femicide may be much higher.

Gender-related killings, as well as other forms of violence against women and girls, are not inevitable. They can and must be prevented, with a combination of early identification of women affected by violence, access to survivor-centered support and protection, ensuring that the police and justice systems are more responsive to the needs of survivors, and by addressing the root cause of violence against women and girls such as harmful masculinities, social norms, eliminating structural gender inequalities and gender stereotypes.