An Egyptian man on death row for killing a woman who rejected his advances was executed on Wednesday by prison authorities in the North African nation. According to VOA, Mohamed Adel was sentenced to death last year after a court found him guilty of the “premeditated murder” of Nayera Ashraf.
The punishment was handed to Adel after he admitted to killing his fellow female student.
The fatal encounter, which happened outside Ashraf’s university, was captured on video, and drew outrage in the North African nation. Prior to the killing, Ashraf had notified authorities about her fears of being harmed, with prosecutors also saying that Adel sent the victim a message, threatening to “cut her throat.”
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Adel’s execution comes after an Egyptian court petitioned the country’s parliament to make a legal amendment that will pave the way for the live broadcast of the accused man’s execution, BBC reported in 2022.
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 carried out in Egypt are not broadcast, and death by hanging is the country’s preferred choice of execution.
A survey released by the United Nations in 2015, revealed that almost eight million Egyptian women had been subjected to violence. Another 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. Speaking to CBS News, a leading Egyptian rights activist explained that the violence committed against women in her country stems from several factors such as religion, politics, and economic setbacks.
