The Kidnapping of Sylvana: An Ethical Test for an Entire State
Dear readers, for the third time, and perhaps even more, I repeat this: as I have mentioned in previous articles, if you have not noticed the publishing platform of this piece, be aware that it was published in Times of Israel, and an article like this would be impossible to publish on any Egyptian or Arab platform. Therefore, we must value the freedom of the press in Israel, which allowed me to bring this case to light.
Imagine with me: a seventeen-year-old girl, suffering from a mental delay that limits her behavior to that of a seven-year-old, is kidnapped, leaving her family powerless to retrieve her, due to a chain of institutional abuses related to the abduction of underage Coptic girls and their forced conversion to Islam.
According to the official lawsuit petition (of which I have a copy), the minor Sylvana Atef Fanous was abducted from her family home on October 28, 2025, by an individual “whose name I withhold”, and I have a copy of the official lawsuit filed before the court. She was held in an unknown location, denied all communication, and deprived of the presence of her legal guardian, posing a direct threat to her life, psychological well-being, and physical safety.
Despite the family taking all necessary legal measures, filing official complaints with the Public Prosecution, and requesting a temporary order to return the minor to her legal guardian, these requests were rejected without valid reasons, despite the presence of urgent danger.
The case is being pursued by a legal team, including lawyer Magid Younan, who affirms that the continued detention of the minor by the abductor without intervention by the relevant authorities constitutes a passive violation threatening her life and stability, justifying recourse to expedited judicial procedures, as the harm cannot withstand delay.
Sylvana’s mother, Maryam, and her father, Atef, pursued every possible avenue, from video appeals to all state institutions to protest actions, as if everything they did was directed at officials in another country, not Egypt.
On Sunday, January 25, I was hosted by Al-Marsad Al-Qibti (The Coptic Observatory), a private channel run by journalist Magdy George from a European country, to speak about the 15th anniversary of the January Uprising in Egypt.
The segment immediately preceding mine featured Sylvana’s mother and father, recounting their catastrophic ordeal, just days before the lawsuit was to be heard in court on January 28. What I heard from the grief-stricken parents could make stones weep, and I could not hold back my tears, imagining for a moment that I was in their place.
The mother said verbatim:
“Mr. President, return my daughter to me.
As a citizen, it is my right to have my daughter returned.
We no longer feel safe in Egypt, which you call a land of security and safety.
We were fasting and did not feel the joy of our Eid; we did not celebrate it.
Return our daughter according to the court ruling on Wednesday.
My daughter is a part of me, she is a sick and minor child.
It is not much to ask, Mr. President, Your Holiness the Pope,
return my daughter, and if it is my fault, it lies with Sisi and His Holiness.
I am in the hospital every day due to my health collapsing from stress and diabetes.
Sylvana’s siblings, we fear for them and worry about them going to school,
so they remain at home; her older sister stayed away from university,
and her brother Karolos stayed away from school.
Enough injustice and bitterness.
I will never tire until I am laid in my grave.”
The father, Atef, said, among other things:
“Every day, paperwork and appeals everywhere. Where is mercy? We see no mercy.
I have hired four lawyers to ensure the return of my daughter.”
Note: Copts in Egypt endure appalling forms of injustice, exclusion, discrimination, racism, and repression. Personally, I am not surprised, as the authoritarian military regime in Egypt has, for decades, acted with extremist impulses, conducting an ethnic cleansing of nearly 85,000 Egyptian Jews, of whom fewer than ten remain today, and having faced no accountability, it has repeated such practices in various forms against the Copts.
Conclusion
Sylvana’s case is not merely a public story; it is an ethical test for an entire state.
A child is kidnapped, and her abductor says: “She converted to Islam and became my wife; it is none of your concern.” It is absurd that any religion becomes a weapon to exploit children as if they were captives.
The family is crushed, and justice remains suspended….. how long must this continue? Have we reached a stage where we accept a measured level of savagery?
Pray with me for humanity, so that this innocent child may return to the embrace of her family on Wednesday, and so that the suffering of innocent children may cease before stories like this happen again.
