AN Egyptian court sentenced doctor and filmmaker Omnia Suwydan on July 4 to a six-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds (US$408) for alleging obstetric violence at an Alexandria public hospital.
Obstetric violence, which includes physical and emotional abuse of pregnant people seeking sexual and reproductive health services, is a widespread but broadly ignored form of gender-based violence.
Suwydan wrote a Facebook post on June 15 describing degrading, violent, and potentially criminal treatment of women seeking reproductive health care, including physical and verbal abuse, sexual abuse, refusal of care, and medical negligence that she said she witnessed at the government hospital. She made allegations of abuse against women that are impossible to ignore.
Suwydan’s post was met with a powerful response online: Women, doctors, and advocates described humiliation, coercion, neglect, and abuse during childbirth and gynaecological care in Egyptian hospitals, alleging unethical practices with little or no consequences. The flood of stories suggests that obstetric violence in Egypt is not isolated bad behaviour but a systemic problem shaped by power imbalances, particularly for lower-income patients seeking free government services who face class discrimination, weak oversight, and normalisation of women’s suffering.
Security forces arrested Suwydan at her home in Damanhour on June 16, just hours after the post was widely shared.
Prosecutors charged Suwydan with “spreading false news” and misusing a social media account before releasing her the next day on bail of 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($408), her lawyers said. For these minor offences, authorities referred her to trial before a criminal court, which sentenced her on July 4, after two short hearings.
Suwydan’s allegations should trigger a serious, independent investigation focused on patient safety. But authorities turned their machinery against the messenger. Prosecuting Suwydan sends a chilling message to women patients, survivors, doctors, nurses, and witnesses: stay silent, or risk punishment. It follows a pattern in Egypt of authorities targeting those who speak out, including a prominent economist and family members of detainees.
Egyptian authorities should immediately drop the charges against Suwydan and end the use of abusive prosecutions to punish critical speech. They should treat Suwydan and other women’s accounts as an urgent public health and human rights emergency, not reputational damage to be policed. – Human Rights Watch
