Written by Sally Shakkour
In the past few days, domestic violence discussions against women have been the top trending topic in the Middle East following two cases in Jordan and Egypt that caused huge debate about women’s rights across the Arab countries.
An Egyptian bride has ignited social media outrage after a video of her husband violently attacking her while in her wedding dress. The video has gone viral shortly and was covered by major streaming T.V. channels.
#Egypt : Video of bride apparently being hit on wedding day has provoked renewed debate over violence to women - #عروس_الاسماعيلية pic.twitter.com/pnUwtR0vBo
— sebastian usher (@sebusher) February 18, 2022
A hashtag “#عروس_الاسماعيلية - the bride of Ismailia'' crashed Twitter as people split between supporters and opponents. Some defended the groom saying that he is free to attack his wife as long as she didn’t complain while others called on the authorities to interfere and called it domestic violence.
#عروس_الاسماعيلية
— جمال اليماني (@GoldGs1) February 19, 2022
طالما تفاهموا وانت المشكلة المفروض إن كل الناس تكون محضر خير وليست محضر شر .وتدعي لهم بحياة سعيدة
وبلاش التعليقات الي ما لهاش لازمه والتي تفسد ولا تصلح
اصلحوا أصلحكم الله
A well-known Egyptian T.V. presenter Yasmin Iez was accused of supporting domestic violence after decriminalizing the incident. A campaign was launched to ban Iez her from performing again. On the other hand, the popular T.V. presenter Radwa El-Sherbiny, who is well known for her pro-women activism, has denounced incident.
It is really so sad to hear that from a woman and a TV presenter ?♀️
She represents herself not all women. She talks about her opinion as what she said is good for her only.
She may need help ?♀️#ياسمين_عز#اوقفوا_ياسمين_عز https://t.co/TWNkftY5lQ— Hanan Hassan (@hgali5) February 19, 2022
The couple later appeared on a T.V. programme explaining the incident. They appeared smiling as if nothing happened; saying that they have been lovers for 13 years.
In the interview, the groom said, "this is normal in our culture if I hit my wife who is also my cousin. However, In another video, the groom said: “I apologize to my wife and all the women in Egypt.”
This girl dropped a semester in uni and her family won't allow her to continue her education and they threaten her with violence so she ran to another country and since she disobeyed them now they want to kill her #انقذوا_باندا
— Me (@anxious_111) February 17, 2022
In Jordan, a new girl took her fears to social media crying for help after her family threatened to kill her for failing courses at the university. A girl called Panda has sought help online after fearing to go to authorities; knowing that they might hand her back to her family who is planning to attack her.
A hashtag "#انقذوا_باندا - Save Panda” circulated the internet following the girl appeared in two videos after leaving the country requesting help after her family knew where she was and threatened to send someone to kill her.
Women’s rights activists have called Middle Eastern countries to further toughen penalties for gender-based murderers and attackers in order to reduce the number of crimes committed against them.
Data shows that gender-Based Violence is still perpetrated in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. At least 35% of women in MENA have experienced some form of violence by an intimate partner during their lifetime – placing MENA second highest in the world.
