A court in Egypt has petitioned the North African nation’s parliament to make a legal amendment that will make way for the live broadcast of the execution of a man convicted of killing a female student.
According to BBC, Mohammed Adel fatally stabbed Nayera Ashraf after she turned down his advances. The fatal encounter, which happened outside Ashraf’s university, was captured on video. Her killing also drew outrage in the North African nation.
The court, in the letter to parliament, explained that broadcasting even a snippet of Adel’s execution could serve as a deterrent to others. Executions that are carried out in Egypt are not broadcast. Death by hanging is the North African nation’s preferred choice of execution.
A survey that was released by the United Nations in 2015 revealed that almost eight million Egyptian women had been subjected to violence. A survey by the National Council for Women also determined that 7.9 million Egyptian women “suffer from all forms of violence yearly, and less than 1% of this number report incidents or seek help,” CBS News reported.
The Edraak Foundation also reported that Egyptian women and girls suffered 335 violent crimes between January and April 2022.
An Egyptian man is said to have stabbed his wife multiple times and cut off her ears just a few days before Ashraf was murdered. A leading Egyptian rights activist told CBS News that the violence committed against women in her country stemmed from several factors such as religion, politics and economic setbacks.