Lawmaker suggests harsh punishment for sex offenders in Egypt

Monday, Apr 17, 2017

Cairo: An Egyptian lawmaker has proposed the castration of repeat sex offenders, citing a spike in sexual assaults in the country of 92 million people.

Zeinab Salem, a member of the pro-government parliamentary bloc “Support Egypt”, defended her suggestion, saying that most rapists started as sexual harassers, but were not deterred by penalties in force.

Her suggestion was floated after a recent incident of mass sex harassment in her Nile Delta hometown of Al Sharqia.

Footage on private TV stations showed a mob of men encircling a girl in Sharqia, about 90 kilometres north of Cairo. “The aim of castration is to make the rapist or the molester socially disgraced for the rest of his life,” said Zeinab, mother of a 19-year-old girl.

“The proposed penalty should be applied only after the offender is found to have repeated his shameful crime,” she told private broadcaster Dream TV this week.

“Such a deterrent penalty will be the solution to eliminate this problem.”

Zeinab has not yet presented her proposal to the legislature, saying she wants to raise it for a public debate first.

A United Nations report released in 2013 found that 99.3 per cent of women in Egypt have experienced some form of sexual harassment.

In May 2014, Egypt made sexual harassment a crime punishable by a maximum five years in prison and a fine of up to 50,000 local pounds (Dh10,200).

“But what if the aggressor returns to his hateful offence despite the jail and fine penalties?” MP Zeinab asked.

“Castrating the harasser and rapist is aimed at safeguarding rights of women who are subjected to this crime.”

Zeinab hit back at rights advocates, who have criticised her suggestion as inhuman.

“I tell these [rights] organisations to come forward and protect my daughter and other Egyptian girls.”

Last month, Egypt reacted with shock to an alleged sex assault by a man aged 35 on a 20-month-old toddler in the Nile Delta province of Dakahlia.

The suspect was arrested and put on trial. A provincial court has set May 2 for ruling in the case amid calls from the public and several parliamentarians to sentence him to death.

In recent months, Egyptian courts have issued jail sentences in cases of sex assaults.

The verdicts were delivered following a quick succession of hearings. Previously, such cases took long years before a verdict was delivered.

By Ramadan Al Sherbini Correspondent