August 12, 2026
May Allam

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), according to the American Psychiatric Association, is defined as the “physical, sexual or psychological harm done to an individual by a current or former partner or spouse” (Psychiatry.org, 2026). IPV is very dangerous because it is not a random act of assault from an unknown person; on the contrary, it is intentional harm from a person considered closest to the victim. Unfortunately, IPV leaves behind severe mental health issues and could lead to even worse consequences, such as death or suicide of the victim. According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, IPV could range from physical to sexual violence and from stalking to psychological aggression of victims. 

Regarding countries in the MENA region – including Egypt – where the culture of shame governs family and personal relations, harassment or abuse is very difficult to trace or even discover. Unfortunately, IPV can happen for many years and is not exposed, except when the consequences are grave. Egypt, as a country, had no public records on IPV until the mid-1990s. In 1995, the Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) started to collect data on the dangers of IPV. According to the USAID (United States Agency for International Development) report on Egypt in 2009, EDHS produced two more reports on IPV in Egypt in 2005 and 2014, respectively. However, gathering and reporting data on IPV has proven to be a challenging task in Egypt, due to the ongoing culture of silence,especially in family affairs, as previously pointed out. 

Women in Egypt tolerate many wrongdoings, such as abuse, sexual harassment, online digital violence, and IPV, without complaining due to traditions and habits. A ‘wise’ woman in Egypt tolerates harm or wrongdoing without complaining, according to popular word-of-mouth proverbs in the country. IPV occurs mostly between married couples, and since Egypt is controlled by patriarchal ideas, women are not allowed to express their grievances in public. They can only complain to direct family members about IPV, and in most cases, the elder member of her family may scold the husband and force the wife to return home as if nothing had happened. Here is where the mistake occurs because once IPV is allowed to occur and the perpetrator is not held accountable, the pattern will be repeated, and the consequences will be worse each time.  

Besides the physical impact of IPV, the psychological and emotional health impacts are grave. According to the UNFPA 2015 report, around 5.6 million Egyptian women are exposed to IPV annually, costing the country billions of pounds in lost working days due to injury to women and their inability to go to their workplace. According to the same report, 46% of women in Egypt are victims of IPV during their marriage, which constitutes a huge percentage of the female population exposed to IPV. Sexual violence between married couples is legal in Egypt and not punishable by the law. If a woman is raped by someone who is not her husband and becomes pregnant, she could be killed by her family members for bringing shame to the family. If she is raped by her husband, no one is to be blamed. The woman bears the blame instead of the man in bothsituations, indicating gender bias and misogyny as dominant ideologies in Egyptian culture. 

Therefore, it is suggested that laws must be amended to punish perpetrators of IPV. The process of creating policies and/or amending laws in a traditional and conservative society like Egypt is long and tedious, since patriarchal traditions control institutions and public opinion. Feminist groups should address the issue publicly and call for local support from NGOs and international support from the global community of feminists and activists, calling for basic human rights. Victims of IPV should be identified and treated for the physical and emotional harm they incur. They should be assured that there is no harm in speaking out about their situation, and institutions should create units that cater to the emotional stability of these women by hiring professionals in the field to talk and listen to them and help them solve their problems. Perpetrators of IPV should also undergo psychological treatment to understand how to change their behavioral patterns and what caused such behavior. The goal of public interference is to impact societal norms that normalize IPV, punish and treat perpetrators as well as victims of IPV, create policies to allow for IPV to be punishable by law in Egypt, and to reduce overall violence in a community already burdened with financial and societal issues in the long-run.