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This post refers to a real execution carried out in Egypt in 1987. Shared solely for historical education and reflection on domestic violence, revenge, and the justice system.
The Last Woman Hanged in Egypt
Samiha Hamid – Bab al-Khalq Prison, Cairo, 11 January 1987
In 1987, after forty years without a single woman on the gallows, Egypt once again witnessed a woman walking toward the noose.
Her name was Samiha Hamid, 30 years old, from Cairo. When questioned by police, she gave only one sentence, spoken without hesitation: “I hated my husband.”
She said nothing more.
The investigation revealed a marriage steeped in bitterness and resentment. One day the burden became unbearable. Samiha ended her husband’s life and tried to erase every trace. In Cairo, however, secrets rarely stay buried forever.
The trial was swift. The sentence was final.
On Sunday, 11 January 1987, inside Bab al-Khalq Prison, Samiha Hamid became the first woman in four decades to be executed in Egypt.
Prison staff expected quiet resignation. Instead they met defiance. She resisted every step, cursing a world she believed had wronged her, refusing to show fear even as death approached.
Barefoot on the wooden trapdoor, legs bound, she stood unbowed to the very end.
Those present later said the execution chamber felt heavy, not with violence, but with the weight of a life consumed by hatred, a life that had spiralled beyond return.
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When the hangman stepped forward, the room fell silent. In that silence, a page of history turned.
We tell Samiha Hamid’s story today not to judge, but to remember the two lives lost in this tragedy; to acknowledge that domestic violence can drive people to places from which there is no way back; and to reflect on society’s duty to break the cycle of hatred before it leads to endings that cannot be undone.
Sources
Egyptian press archives (Al-Ahram, Akhbar El Yom), 1987
Amnesty International reports on capital punishment in Egypt, 1980s
Partially declassified Ministry of Justice files