Do you all remember the movie called “Kheyana Mashroo’a”, legal adultery, directed by Khaled Youssef, starring Hany Salama and Somaia El Khashab? While this was just a movie, it actually tackled a very important topic. Not only do people like Hany Salama get away with killing their wife when caught cheating, but many husbands in real life get the same pardoning.
According to the Egyptian Law, adultery is defined as “sexual intercourse between a woman and a man other than her husband, or between a man and a woman other than his wife.”
In traditional Islamic law –since they claim Egypt is an “Islamic Country” governed by sources of Shari’a- the punishment for adultery for a married couple is stoning, and 100 lashes for unmarried ones and it is applied on both committing the act, which clearly shows no gendered biases. Also, to prove such a practice, there was a condition of having four witnesses seeing the actual intercourse, so it did not depend on the man or woman to prove such a deed actually happened.
However, in the Egyptian Code, the punishment for adultery is greatly different for both sexes. According to Article 274 in the penal code, women are punished by prison for a period of not more than two years, yet Article 277 states that men are punished by prison for a period of not more than six months. (Why? No one knows.)
In addition, the conditions for women to prove that her husband has cheated on her are very challenging, for according to the Article 277, she has to see it and it has to be practiced in the “marital home”. Here, it can be evident that the Article cripples women to actually gain her rights, and there is a clear indication that women’s judgments or claims need to be proven by actual or physical evidence, unlike men’s.
However, when it comes to the man, he has a choice to drop the charges, stop the implementation of the punishment and get back to his wife. This privilege of granting pardon is not given to the woman, which proves the assumption that men have ownership over their wives’ honor- again the same mentality which deals with honor crimes.
Now, what about punishments of crimes related to adultery?
There is mitigation when it comes to husbands killing their wives if they are caught in an act of adultery -ranging from twenty-four hours to three years only – for the court considers him to be defending his “honor”. The court also regards it as “crimes of passion”, meaning that the immediate response of killing was a result of a temporary emotional state of extreme anger, and rage.
On the other hand, women are punished by life for prison of a period from three to fifteen years or hard labor for life, according to Article 234 which nobody has found a reasonable explanation for this until now. However, what many proponents claim is that the woman the husband is cheating with might actually be his “Second wife”.
Actually, two counter-arguments can be opposed to this. First, if the court excuses the husband’s murder because it is a “crime of passion”, where he was so angry that he couldn’t control his actions, why is this not the case for women? Aren’t they also hurt by such acts? Isn’t this a clear indication of stereotyping between men and women, assuming that the instant reaction for men when upset is to be violent and strong, yet weak and gentle for women. The second is ignoring the legal condition that if any husband wants to marry another life, he has to inform his wife first. So if she caught him in such a situation, the assumption that this might be “his wife” is totally invalid since she is unaware of it.
The problem of discrimination of women goes beyond anyone’s imagination. In every area/field, the superiority of men is being stress upon in institutionalized form. With all the efforts of feminists, one must acknowledge that the walls are endless and so strong to break. Whenever a woman’s position is improved in a specific section, one will always find another unexpected form of discrimination being practiced. And when it comes to laws, legal aspects and institutionalized methods, it can be nearly impossible to improve it.
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