An Egyptian court is due to hear on Monday the case against the controversial feminist writer Nawal Al Saadawi, who is accused of insulting Islam, according to reports.
A Cairo lawyer has filed suit against her. It was first rejected by the prosecutor general, but a court later decided to hear it.
If Saadawi is convicted of apostasy, she will be declared divorced from her husband, Sharif Hatata, a leftist writer.
The author has been quoted as saying that the Muslim Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca has pagan roots, and that women should inherit the same amount as men, instead of half, said BBC Online.
Saadawi denies making the statements.
The trial of Saadawi has prompted the latest in a series of US media reports blasting the Arab country for “human rights abuses.”
The wave of criticism began last month when a prominent human rights activist was sentenced to seven years in jail for accepting foreign money and defaming his homeland.
A Los Angeles Times article last week predicted that the court would “forcibly divorce” Saadawi from her husband of 37 years for the alleged offenses, based on what the paper calls “an obscure and rarely applied Islamic principle” called hisba.
“Now her critics are trying to take away her husband,” read the feature.
The lawsuit is only the second time in modern Egyptian history that hisba has been sought. As in the first case, says the article, this one targets an academic whose ideas infuriate “fundamentalists.”
The report did not seek the opinion of “moderate” Muslims to see if they considered her alleged remarks or views outrageous.
However, the lawyer behind the suit, Nabih Wahsh, was quoted as saying that he was not a fundamentalist, but simply an average Muslim who "loves and respects Dr. Saadawi" but feels that he must stop her because she has crossed a red line.
"If I told her she has to wear a veil, that would not be right -- that is her decision to make," Wahsh said. "If I asked her why she was not praying, that would not be right. But if she wants to advise people not to wear the veil or not to pray, then I think I should stop her." – Albawaba.com
