Beyond Punishment

In January 2025, a sixth-grade student at Capital International School in Cairo was brutally attacked by three older peers, sending her to the hospital with a fractured nose and extensive bruising. The government intervened, arresting the perpetrators and investigating the school, but not before a video of the assault went viral, sparking thousands of angry comments on social media and featuring almost daily on Egyptian television over the following month.

Despite the unprecedented attention this case received, peer-on-peer violence is an all-too-common occurrence in Egypt. Among world regions, North Africa and the Middle East, respectively, have the first and second highest prevalence of physical fights in schools. Within the MENA region, Egypt has the highest rates of bullying by a large margin, with 70 percent of children aged 13 to 15 reporting being recently bullied.

In 2020, the government responded by formally criminalizing bullying, further toughening penalties in 2021 and 2023. However, despite prior criticism over a lack of enforcement, the public’s uproar in this case has focused not on inadequacies in the government’s response, but on its broader societal implications, with prominent TV presenter Ahmed Moussa calling the case a “moral catastrophe.”

This reaction has forced the government, which traditionally relies on punitive solutions, to rethink their response to bullying—and to social unrest. On January 21, within days of the initial social media firestorm, the Ministries of Social Solidarity and Education launched a new anti-bullying campaign, “As-7abi,” or “My Friends.” The campaign aims to address the sociocultural factors behind bullying through novel strategies, such as teacher training workshops and interactive sessions for children to cultivate emotional intelligence and a culture of non-violence. While Sisi’s police-centered governance persists—and seems unlikely to change—the campaign’s swift and novel introduction may indicate a renewed willingness to consider innovative strategies of responding to sociocultural issues when policing fails.