The underage Coptic girl Silvana Atef Fanous whose family claimed she had been kidnapped, but was later found by the police, has been placed in a public care home for children, by order of the public prosecutor of Tamiya in Fayoum, some 110 km southwest Cairo, where Silvana was found. Her family was allowed to visit her.

Silvana, who will be 18 in March 2026, and is as such legally a child, had gone missing from her home in Hadayeq October on the Cairo-Fayoum Road, on 28 October 2025, following an argument with her sister. Her family assumed she had been kidnapped, and reported her missing. They were especially concerned because Silvana has a medically-confirmed mental disability and is a slow learner, according to medical reports issued by a public hospital. She had been attending a school in which children with disabilities were merged with non-disabled children.

The police found Silvana and, on 1 November 2025, summoned her parents to see their daughter at the police station of Tamiya, Fayoum, where she had been found. They found her wearing a niqab, the full face veil, and claiming she had converted to Islam and married a Muslim man with the initials S.M. This was in flagrant violation to Egypt’s Child Law which bans the marriage of “children”, that is under-18s. It also violated the law of persons with disabilities.

Silvana said she did not wish to return to her family, as many of her new “friends” supported her and were happy with her newfound Islamic religion.

The prosecution dismissed any suspicion of kidnapping, and the girl left without notifying her family of her whereabouts, leaving the matter in a terrible legal vacuum.

Silvana’s family took the case to the Family Court, demanding that their daughter be handed to them or placed in a qualified care home but, on 28 January 2026, the court ruled that the case was outside its competency.

In a surprise move, video footage was posted on social media showing Silvana publicly announcing she was Muslim by her own free will. A woman behind the camera was clearly heard prompting her what to say, and the video concluded with Silvana branding Christians as infidels, upon the woman’s prompting. Silvana came along as an innocent, helpless child that was being exploited.

Another video was later posted in which Silvana aroused everyone’s sympathy by talking of her difficult childhood. There was an elderly man next to her who held a cigarette, and whom she embraced in an innocent childlike manner that exposed her childishness and imbalanced character. This sparked waves of anger and distress on social media, with viewers commenting at her being obviously exploitated a child.

Following the broadcast of these video clips, the girl’s family conducted a sit-in in front of Tamiya Courts Complex, in an appeal for authorities to intervene.

Then came the decision of Tamiya prosecution to place the child in a care home, granting her family visitation rights, and a priest to follow up on her and work with her family to resolve the problems that led her to escape from home. The decision was lauded by the family lawyer Maged Younan.