Egypt man sets fire to home killing wife, 4 daughters and mother

A man has set fire to his family home in Assiut, Upper Egypt, apparently after a dispute over expenses.

His four daughters, aged 17, 10, six and three, his 41-year-old wife and his 70-year-old mother were inside.

Only his 17-year-old daughter survived in the fire, which completely burnt out the first floor. She is being treated in hospital.

The horrific attack once again raises questions over male violence towards women and domestic abuse.

Egyptian law explicitly discriminates on the basis of sex. For example, certain articles stipulate men should receive a lesser punishment than other forms of murder if they kill their wives on discovering them in an act of adultery.

Egypt: Man shoots fiancée who rejected his advances

At the same time, women who are subject to domestic violence or marital rape are not protected as these are not explicitly criminalised under Egyptian law.

Laws like this promote and perpetuate violence against women and girls whilst the absence of accountability emboldens attackers.

At the beginning of February, a man was caught on video shooting his fiancée after she broke off the relationship and refused to get back together with him.

In December last year a man set fire to his wife after the couple were not able to conceive a child together.

Egypt: Oil pipeline fire injures 17

The attack this weekend comes not long after a pipeline leaking crude oil exploded on the Cairo-Ismailia desert highway, injuring 17 people and burning out 20 cars.

The fire was caused after a spark from a passing car ignited the oil.

Three days prior to that a major fire broke out in a market in the Cairo neighbourhood of Helwan destroying over 500 shops.

At the end of June seven people died after a fire broke out in an intensive care unit in a hospital in Alexandria. A month before a fire broke out at a coronavirus isolation centre in Cairo.