Egypt accused of torturing women over alleged IS ties

Two human rights organizations have accused the Egyptian government of arbitrarily detaining and, in some instances, torturing women and girls who were connected to alleged IS members.

According to Human Rights Watch and the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, the detentions frequently seem to have been used to exert pressure on relatives who were thought to have ties to IS-affiliated Egyptian jihadists.

The goal, according to attorneys and witnesses questioned for the study, was to identify potential jihadists or persuade them to turn themselves in.