The Cairo Butcher: Slaughter and Sorcery in Monufia—The Brutal Revenge Against Egypt's Infamous Mystic Sisters

Kawsar and Saadiya were two infamous sisters from Monufia, Egypt, known across the region in the early 2000s for practicing sorcery and running elaborate scams. In 2003, both women were found brutally slaughtered and dismembered inside their home, the crime scene marked by precision cuts suggesting the killer was someone skilled with a knife. Police eventually arrested Shaaban al-Gazzar, a local butcher, who confessed to the murders. He claimed the sisters had ruined his life and drained his finances through their witchcraft and fraud, and that he killed them out of revenge while also seizing their large stores of gold and cash. The case shocked the public, who had long feared the sisters’ alleged powers, and underscored the violent backlash their activities provoked.