[JURIST] The Egyptian government is failing to protect women’s rights and end violence against women, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] reported [press release] Wednesday. AI reports that women and girls face violence in all aspects of life, including in public and at home. According to the group, public mob attacks have included woman being undressed, beaten and dragged through the streets, while at home abused women find it hard to divorce their husbands for cause. Egyptian authorities have passed laws that criminalize the acts, but AI reports that the failure of government to recognize the wide scale of the problem and implement the new laws has led to a continuance of the issue. The violence also extends to women in state custody. AI has called on Egyptian authorities to protect women in custody, repeal laws that prevent woman from fair divorces and better implement new laws criminalizing violence against women.

Violence against women has been a persistent issue in Egypt and throughout the world. In February 2013 the UN’s top women’s rights advocate denounced [JURIST report] violence against women in Egypt after 25 girls were sexually assaulted during a protest in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. In December 2012 police in New Delhi, India charged [JURIST report] six men with the murder of a woman who died from injuries sustained in a gang-rape. Also in December 2012 the UN released [JURIST report] a report detailing that women in Afghanistan were suffering from violence as well.