Egypt: Man shoots fiancée who rejected his advances

A video is circulating in Egypt of a young man shooting his fiancée and then attempting to commit suicide

According to local media the couple were engaged but later decided to break off the relationship.

When he asked her to reconcile, she refused and he became bitter and started to harass her.

When she continued to decline his advances he eventually shot her in the head in the Nozha district of Cairo, then attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the neck, but failed and was taken to hospital.

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The young woman is in a critical condition.

The shooting comes just weeks after Egyptian singer Tameem Youness released a video “Salmonella” describing how he would react if a woman he is attracted to refuses his advances, including hoping that she contracts salmonella and threatening to destroy her house.

The song ignited outrage on social media where Youness was accused of financially, socially and legally benefitting from abusing women.

The harassment of women is a serious problem in Egypt where over 99 per cent of women have experienced some form of sexual harassment.

On New Year’s Eve a video of a young woman being sexually attacked by a mob of men in Mansoura sparked outrage across the country. Reports later revealed that she had asked a nearby policeman for help but he declined saying that they were understaffed.

In December last year an Egyptian man set fire to his wife in Cairo because she didn’t bear him a child for three years.

READ: Egypt parents arrested after 12-year-old girl dies from genital mutilation

Neighbours reported that Mohamed and his mother had been abusing her throughout her marriage because they believed she was infertile.

In Egypt, over 4,000 women are domestically abused every day yet domestic violence isn’t criminalised under Egyptian law.

Activists have not only accused Egyptian authorities of being indifferent towards the perpetrators of sexual harassment, often punishing victims themselves when they come forward with complaints, but say they are key perpetrators of sexual violence themselves, in particular towards political prisoners.

This top-down approach towards sexual abuse and the lack of accountability has spurred on citizens to abuse women in the street, believing that nothing will happen to them.