The 21 young women, gathered next to the Istanli Bridge in Alexandria on 31 October 2013, were chanting anti-army slogans when the police and the army intervened. The protestors were arrested and beaten up by the agents. Taken for interrogation to the prosecutor, they were charged the same day with "gathering in a public place", "terrorism", "use of force against the authorities", and "destruction of the entrance of a real-estate". They were only given access to a lawyer after five days of incommunicado detention. Currently held in administrative detention pending investigation in Abadiya Prison in Damanhour city, they continue to be subjected to ill-treatment in detention.

The 21 female students were arrested as a consequence of the exercise of their right to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, in violation with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Egypt is party.Criticism of the military is not a permissible limitation to these rights. The charges brought against the female demonstrators are clearly arbitrary, though they are used regularly in Egypt to crack down on those seen as opposing the authorities. As the Human Rights Committee has stated, "arbitrariness is not only against the law, but also includes elements of inappropriateness, injustice and lack of predictability". Charges like terrorism and gathering in public places are too elastic to enable an individual to assess the legality of his or her behaviour which explains why these laws are regularly and arbitrarily used to clamp down on protestors.

Pre-trial detention must be the exception and not the rule. For detention to be lawful, it must be "reasonable and necessary" in the circumstance of the case. The necessity and reasonableness of detaining 21 individuals (including six minors) that simply exercised their right of freedom of assembly and expression is unclear.

Minors can only be detained for serious acts involving violence and for the shortest time possible as stipulated by international law. Whenever possible, the state should seek alternative measures to detention. As 6 minors are amongst these 21 women, and they have not committed any crime nor been involved in any violence, their detention is unlawful. In addition, they are detained with adults contrary to international law.

Since the 2011 Egyptian revolution, violations including sexual violence, assaults and illegal detention, committed against women have been rampant. Alkarama calls on the Egyptian authorities to put an end to these and open investigations on these crimes. Today, Alkarama asked the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly to urgently intervene with the Egyptian authorities to request the immediate release of the women named below.

1. Ms Ala Alaa Addine Ibrahim علا علاء الدين ابراهيم), 19), student of at the faculty of engineering.

2. Ms Israa Jamal Chaaban إسراء جمال شعبان), 19), student at the faculty of fine arts.

3. Ms Samya Rajab Ali سمية رجب علي), 18), student at the faculty of science.

4. Ms Samya Bachar سمية بشر), 18), student at the faculty of literature.

5. Ms Alaa Oussama Al-Iraqi آلاء أسامة العراقي) , 23)

6. Ms Mouna Maher Al-Beltagi منى ماهر البلتاجي) 18), student at the faculty of science.

7. Ms Sarah Abdel Qader Ahmed Abdel Qader سارة عبدالقادر أحمد عبد القادر) 18), student at the faculty of fine arts.

8. Ms Ayya Tarek Mostafa آية طارق مصطفى) 18), student at the faculty of pharmacy.

9. Ms Rodwa Ramdan Abdel Hamid رضوى رمضان عبد الحميد) 15), high school student.

10. Ms Maha Moahmed Mostafa مهى محمد مصطفى), 18), student at the faculty of science.

11. Ms Mawadda Mohsen Mostafa مودة محسن مصطفى) 15), high school student.

12. Ms Rawda Hossam Chalabi روضة حسام شلبي) , 23), engineering student.

13. Ms Aicha Abdullah Abdel Samih عائشة عبد الله عبد السميع) 16), high school student at Al-Azhar.

14. Ms Fatima Azahra Ismael فاطمة الزهراء اسماعيل) 16)

15. Ms Salwa Mohamed Assayed سلوى أحمد السيد) 35)

16. Ms Sonia Abdel Rahman Ahmed سونيا عبد الرحمن أحمد) 35)

17. Ms Salma Rida Mohamed سلمى رضا محمد) 15), high school student.

18. Ms Youmna Ans Mohamed Mohamed Abu Issa يمنى محمد أنس أبو عيسى) 15), high school student.

19. Ms Jihad Mawafi Jaber جهاد موافي جابر), 18), student at the faculty of literature.

20. Ms Ayya Kamal Eddine Hassan آية كمال الدين حسن), 18)