Minutes before iftar, Mamdouh A. (45) and his neighbour Sayed A. (63) were fatally shot during Ramadan following the renewal of a blood feud between two families in a village in the Deshna district of Qena governorate in southern Egypt.

In a separate incident in the Nile Delta, Hosni Atta Allah (41) was fatally stabbed by a friend following a dispute between them, hours before iftar in a village in the Tanta district of Gharbia governorate, according to local media.

Bloodshed in Egypt’s streets took a tragic turn on the first day of Ramadan when a young man killed his father, Ezzat Sh., and burned his body following a dispute between them in the city of Senbellawein in Dakahlia governorate in northern Egypt.

Many murder cases in Egypt involve relatives, siblings, spouses and friends, while police records are filled with shocking family crimes that signal rising social tensions and increasing levels of violence amid harsh social and economic transformations that provide a fertile environment for such acts.

Many murder cases in Egypt involve relatives, siblings, spouses and friends, while police records are filled with shocking family crimes that signal rising social tensions and increasing levels of violence amid harsh social and economic transformations that provide a fertile environment for such acts.

Financial and family disputes Amid the deteriorating economic situation in the country, the collapse of the local currency (around 53 pounds to the dollar), soaring prices, and rising rates of inflation, poverty and unemployment, financial disputes lie behind many murder cases in Egypt.

Inflation stood at 11.5 percent in February, while poverty has reached record levels, with around 60 percent of Egyptians living in poverty, according to World Bank estimates. The unemployment rate reached 6.2 percent by the end of 2025, according to official data.

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The family of seven-year-old Ibrahim Ali never imagined they would find their child slaughtered and dumped inside a sack in a desert area in the city of 10th of Ramadan in Sharqia governorate in the Nile Delta, and that the perpetrator, a relative, had abducted and killed him days earlier to demand a ransom from the family.

Fatima Khalil, known in Egypt’s media as the “Port Said Bride”, was strangled to death during Ramadan by the wife of her fiancé’s brother following a verbal dispute over matters related to the marital home, according to investigations by Egypt’s Public Prosecution in case No. 285 of 2026 (South Administration), registered under No. 309 of 2026.

Money was a key factor in the killing of a young man by his brother over an inheritance dispute in Sharqia (Nile Delta), and in the case of a young man who stabbed his cousin to death in Fayoum (central Egypt) over financial disputes. Sociologist Mohamed Gomaa attributed this to the accumulation of economic, social and psychological pressures that produce anxious, tense and fragile personalities unable to tolerate others, within an environment conducive to such violence, marked by extreme poverty, low incomes, political frustration and a bleak outlook for the future.

With every rise in prices and wave of inflation, people feel they have been pushed a hundred steps backward, leaving them resentful of society—sometimes even toward their own parents. Such an atmosphere fuels selfishness and encourages isolation and hatred, ultimately leading to violence, according to Gomaa.

Social and psychological pressures A few days ago, a man killed his ex-wife with a knife in the city of Mallawi in Minya governorate in southern Egypt. In another incident, a housewife died after being beaten by her brother-in-law in Sharqia governorate in the Nile Delta. A video circulating on social media also showed a young man attacking his mother with a knife in a village in the Benha district, north of Cairo.

In his study, “Prominent Crimes in Egyptian Society: A Study of the Victims’ Community,” Dr Walid Rashad, Professor of Sociology at the government-run National Centre for Social and Criminological Research, concluded that drug abuse is a major factor in many cases of domestic violence, and that what he described as the “weakening of social ties” and the diminished role of the extended family in resolving disputes between spouses increase the likelihood of escalating violence.

The Egyptian rights group Idraak for Development and Equality said it documented 1,219 cases of violence against girls and women in Egypt in 2025, compared with 1,195 cases in 2024, 950 in 2023, 1,006 in 2022, 813 in 2021 and 415 in 2020.

According to the organisation’s Observatory for Crimes of Violence against Women and Girls, based in Cairo, murder topped the list of violent crimes with 312 cases, including 252 killings resulting from domestic violence committed by a family member, husband or partner, whether current or former.

The crimes were geographically distributed as follows: 87 killings in the central governorates (Cairo, Giza and Qalyubia), 70 in Upper Egypt, 60 in the Delta governorates, 13 in the border governorates, 13 in the coastal governorates, and nine in the canal governorates.

The motives behind the crimes varied. Family disputes were behind 29 killings, while suspicions over behaviour led to 23 cases, 16 killings were linked to the perpetrator’s drug addiction, 20 to mental illness, 11 were motivated by robbery, and four resulted from inheritance disputes.

The motives behind the crimes varied. Family disputes were behind 29 killings, while suspicions over behaviour led to 23 cases, 16 killings were linked to the perpetrator’s drug addiction, 20 to mental illness, 11 were motivated by robbery, and four resulted from inheritance disputes.

In most cases, however, the perpetrator was a member of the victim’s family (report link: https://2u.pw/iFiELY)

As for murders committed by a stranger (not a relative), the report documented 60 killings of women and girls driven by various motives, most notably robbery.

Journalist Amr Ali said that growing economic pressures, soaring prices, the absence of social justice, political oppression and a decline in religious restraint often generate violence.

Fathers are unable to meet the needs of their households and children, while housewives struggle to meet the household’s needs. When a wife asks her husband for more money, disputes erupt, and domestic violence follows.

Fathers are unable to meet the needs of their households and children, while housewives struggle to meet the household’s needs. When a wife asks her husband for more money, disputes erupt, and domestic violence follows.

According to the Idraak team, crimes peaked in the autumn, particularly in September and October, pointing to the influence of seasonal social and economic factors, such as the start of the school year.

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Decline of Morals and TV Drama

Despite the return of a strong police grip and the growing influence of the security establishment under the current president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, a state of moral decline is spreading in Egypt’s streets, accompanied by incidents of violence, knife fights and the spread of drugs, amid a government focus on strengthening political security and pursuing opponents of the regime at the expense of criminal security, according to observers.

Lawyer and human rights advocate Mohamed Mostafa told Middle East Monitor that the situation is due to the absence of sufficiently deterrent penalties. He noted that the legal classification of the crime of “assault leading to death” reduces it from a felony to a misdemeanour punishable by a maximum of seven years in prison. He also said that provisions in Egypt’s Penal Code grant judges discretionary authority to reduce sentences if the crime occurs within the family.

During the Police Day celebration last January, Egypt’s Interior Minister Mahmoud Tawfiq said crime rates in the country fell by 14.4 percent in 2025.

In the same month, a video circulated on social media showing an Egyptian father walking in the street after killing four of his children, aged between eight and 17, by hanging them before throwing their bodies into Lake Mariout in Alexandria governorate in northern Egypt.

The rise in violent crimes in Egypt, whether domestic or societal, is no longer an isolated phenomenon but a social crisis shaped by multiple economic, cultural and legislative factors. Among the most prominent are the gradual erosion of society’s “moral identity”, the promotion of thuggery and violence in TV dramas, impunity, weak enforcement of the law, declining trust in the justice system, and the crushing of most segments of Egyptian society under poverty, pressure and debt, according to Egyptian preacher Ahmed Abdel Monem.

Under the headline “Crimes in Ramadan!”, journalist Mohamed Amin asked in an article published in the privately owned newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm: What has happened to the Egyptian family? Are economic conditions behind these crimes, or the absence of religious restraint? Has society become more violent? And has television drama been fuelling this trend?

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

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