CAIRO —
Egypt detained a male student Wednesday on suspicion of murdering a female
student who allegedly rejected his advances, after the second such campus
femicide in two months, prosecutors said.
اضافة اعلان
The suspect, from
Zagazig, 60km north of Cairo, stands accused of killing his victim, identified
only by her first name Salma, by “repeatedly stabbing her with a knife”, a
prosecution statement said.
Murder carries the
death penalty in Egypt and the country sentenced more people to death last year
than any other, according to human rights group Amnesty International. It was
third highest in the number of executions carried out.
The latest killing
revived memories of the June murder of student Nayera Ashraf, stabbed to death
in front of her university in Mansoura, 150 kilometres north of Cairo.
After convicting
and sentencing to death her killer, Mohamed Adel, the court called for changes
to the law to allow executions to be broadcast live as a deterrent to others.
Capital punishment
in Egypt is rarely carried out in public or broadcast.
In a rare
exception, state television broadcast the execution of three men in 1998 who
had murdered a woman and her two children in their Cairo home.
Routine violence
There was widespread outrage on social media over the latest killing but
some users suggested the victim was at fault for befriending a male student.
“Salma was murdered
simply for being born a woman in a misogynous society,” one user said.
“So long as there
are sympathizers out there who make excuses for the perpetrators of these
crimes, they will continue,” said another in response to a user who criticized
the victim.
Conservative
interpretations of Islam in Egypt have contributed to severely limiting women’s
rights.
Women report being
targeted by routine violence with little legal redress.
Nearly eight
million Egyptian women were victims of violence committed by their partners or
relatives, or by strangers in public spaces, according to a United Nations
survey conducted in 2015.
High-profile
femicides have triggered widespread anger in Egypt in recent months.
In June, the murder
of television presenter
Shaimaa Gamal stirred controversy in the North African
country.
Her husband, a
senior judicial official, was arrested following a tip-off from an accomplice
who confessed to taking part in the crime, according to the prosecution.
In March, a teenager was sentenced to five years in prison
over the suicide of a schoolgirl after images of her were shared online.
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