Egyptian MPs: Women Are More Guilty of Adultery Than Men
MP Margaret Azer, of the Support Egypt coalition, called on gender-equalization of the adultery punishment as the current adultery law shows significant favoring of men over women. However, of course, the parliament was outraged in offence and we don’t know why.
Parliamentary outcry
Almost everyone became the advocate of the current law, deeming it as fair and just, so members of the Legislation and Religion committees have rejected the bill. Omar Hamroush, the secretary of the Religion Committee, described the proposed bill as “contradicting Sharia;” what Sharia? As far as we know, Quran never segregated genders whether in rewards or punishments.
Amena Nosair, a member of the Legislation Committee and a religion professor at Al-Azhar University, called for voting down the bill because, she believes, the penalty for women should be more severe. Her rationale is that the woman’s crime could extend beyond adultery to include intermixing lineages; obscuring the paternity of a child from an affair for example.
Ilhamy Ageena steps in
The infamous member of the – erm – Human Rights Committee barged in to give his say on this: “I believe the penalty for women should be increased to preserve timidity.” If you weren’t really following the news on this fellow last month, he proposed two bills about the hymen. One about female genital mutilation and the other about imposing virginity tests as requirements for students enrolling in universities as well as regular tests to ensure female students are not sleeping around.
Present legal situation
The sentence for a wife found to have committed adultery in Egypt is two years in prison. A husband caught cheating only receives a six month sentence, and is only liable for punishment if he commits adultery in the family home.
Not only that, a husband can kill his wife and her lover if he caught them in bed together and spend a day in jail in consequence. Whereas a woman who would do the same would face a charge of willful murder, which means she would most likely receive a life sentence or hard labor if she’s lucky. Nazra for feminist studies has even launched a campaign under the title Qanun Nashaz (Arabic for Dissonant Law) that talks all about it. For heaven’s sake, we’re celebrating the 150th year in Egypt’s parliamentary life and look at where we are.
WE SAID THIS: Read more about Ageena’s controversial proposals.
