Hana, a 44-year-old Egyptian mother of three, used to work doing odd jobs from home. One day, a friend asked her to guarantee a small loan she needed to buy a refrigerator, a stove and a TV for her granddaughter. She agreed without thinking too much about it. And at first, everything went smoothly as her friend kept up payments of $83 each month.

Eventually, however, her friend had financial problems. She could no longer repay the loan and ran away. The shop where she had bought all the appliances then sued Hana, as guarantor, for the remainder, which amounted to about $932. But because she could not afford to pay, she was arrested and sentenced to one year in prison. She spent four and a half months in Al Qanater women’s prison, north of Cairo.

When she was released, Hana found out that she had again been sued for another loan, one she had taken out to open her small abaya and sewing workshop. Between the COVID-19 pandemic bringing business to a halt and her imprisonment, she was left unable to repay the loan. She found herself facing another sentence of up to two years.

There are thousands of cases like Hana's in Egypt. Poor debtors, who default, referred to as gharemat, and end up behind bars or on the run after defaulting on loans and guarantees. Although the amounts for which they are sued are usually very low and they are often victims of scams, the law is very harsh, with prison sentences of up to three years.