The National Council for Women (NCW) called on Egypt's Ministry of Interior and security officials in Egypt's northwestern governorate of Matrouh, Saturday, to take the required action to find Sara Abdel-Malik, a 13-year-old girl who was reportedly kidnapped in September.

Abdel-Malik's father had filed a complaint to the the national body for women's issues, reporting that his teenage daughter was kidnapped after leaving school on 30 September.

According to the father, the girl was kidnapped by a young man who forcibly married her despite the fact that she is still a child.

In the Saturday statement published on their official website, the NCW expressed its complete rejection of child marriage, adding that it is forbidden under Egyptian law. The legal marital age in Egypt is currently 18 years old.

In May, a controversial law lowering the marriage age was put to the now-dissolved People's Assembly (lower house of parliament), sparking uproar among women's rights organisations.

Similarly, human rights groups and political figures condemned recent calls by Islamist members of Egypt's Constituent Assembly to reduce the marital age for women to as young as nine years old.