by Raymond Ibrahim
March 31, 2024 at 5:00 am
Her family immediately went to police, who told them not to go public, and that they would help return Irene; the family complied. In early February, however, the family finally did go public — and hinted that the authorities were complicit in the abduction and know exactly where she is. Their fears appeared confirmed: in late February, her family learned that the religion field on Irene’s ID had been electronically changed from Christian to Muslim. Weeks before that, Irene had managed to make a desperate, tearful call to her brother, before a man seized the phone and said, “Okay, you heard her voice and know she’s okay, right? Now go to hell!” and slammed down the phone. According to one source familiar with the case (name withheld for fear of reprisals),
“Her brother heard her screaming, someone was yelling at her, and then the call ended. It seems that she used his phone without his permission. This was a great piece of evidence that she was kidnapped.”
The family then began its own investigation, but when they contacted police with the information they had gathered, “The police officers threatened to arrest the family if they tried to rescue her and warned them that the kidnappers are armed.” As of mid-February, authorities “concluded” that Irene was never abducted but had rather run off with a Muslim man and had willingly converted to Islam. As her father said in an interview, though: if Irene had intended to run off, why would she do it in between exams, while carrying medical supplies as opposed to travel gear? The family’s experiences with the authorities, the unnamed source concluded, are “Another way to mislead families.” He added:
“The Muslim Brotherhood Sharia Association in the Asyut Governorate, under security cover from Asyut and Sohaj cities, coordinated the kidnapping of Christian college student Irene Shehata.”
The abduction and Islamization of Christian girls in Egypt and is well-documented in a 2020 report by Coptic Solidary, “Jihad of the Womb”: Trafficking of Coptic Women & Girls in Egypt, which documents “the widespread practice of abduction and trafficking” of Coptic girls.
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