CAIRO
By Islam Tawfiq
Some 40 female supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi have been killed and 500 others arrested since the July 3 ouster of the elected leader, a pro-democracy group said.
"The coup has committed crimes against women in violation of international norms and conventions," the "Women against coup" movement said in a new report cited by Anadolu Agency on Saturday.
According to the group, the first casualties among pro-Morsi women occurred in the Nile Delta province of Mansoura on July 19 when four women were killed during pro-democracy rally.
The pro-democracy group said that "killings of women continued" until the dispersal of pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo in mid-August, in which hundreds of people, including many women, were killed.
The report said that 250 female supporters of the ousted president were arrested in the first three days that followed the eviction of the pro-Morsi sit-ins.
Twenty-two female supporters were also arrested in Alexandria during a pro-Morsi rally on October 31, the movement said.
On Wednesday, an Alexandria court sentenced 14 of the arrested protesters to 11 years in prison on charges of "illegal assembly and joining a banned group".
The report accused the military-backed authorities of trumpeting up charges against pro-Morsi female supporters, calling on civil society organizations and the international community to form fact-finding commissions into what it called "violations committed by coup-makers" against Egyptian women.
It also called for bringing those responsible for these "violations" to justice.
The report, however, did not mention the number of women who have been released.
The Interior Ministry has not released any data about the number of detainees since Morsi's overthrow.
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