Murders During al-Adha Feast; Why are Egyptian Husbands and Wives Killing Each Other?

 

In 20th July 2021, while Egyptians and Muslims all over the globe were celebrating the Adha feast happily, several murder incidents took place in several governorates. 

What distinguished the incidents from the ordinary crimes is that they had all happened during the feast, and they were between a husband and his wife, either the husband killed the wife or vice versa.

Social media comments circulated and several newspapers talked about the incidents, raising questions on whether these incidents are considered a social phenomenon or just individual actions.

 

Horrible Incidents 

The First Incident occurred in Daqahliya province, where a dentist disposed of his 26-year-old wife, a doctor, with 11 knife wounds inside their home in the studies area of Mansoura city, after family disputes over spending and fled.

The security services received a report from Mansoura International Hospital about the arrival of a 26-year-old dead body.

After the examination, it became clear that she had received 11 stab wounds, by her doctor husband, and investigations found that the doctor had three children, and that a dispute broke out between them on al-Adha Feast that led to the end of her life. 

The Second incident happened in Qalyubia governorate, where a housewife ended the life of her husband, an accountant, in the village of Tant al-Jazeera, after she stabbed him on the day of al-Adha feast because of a dispute between them, to charge the electricity meter in their apartment in the village.

The head of the police station's investigation moved to the scene, and it became clear that there was a verbal altercation between the wife and her husband on the expenses of the house, which developed into a fight in which he tried to beat her, so the wife went to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and stabbed him in the chest.

The accused was brought before the Prosecutor's Office of the Khanka Police Station, confessed to the incident and ordered the prosecution to detain her for four days pending investigations.

“I lived with him in a love story before and after marriage, but what happened was a demon moment because of the expenses, and I didn't mean to kill him," the defendant said in her confessions.

The Third crime took place in Beni Suef governorate, where a husband committed the murder of his wife by hitting her 27 stab wounds, in the chest, abdomen and neck until she died, and then attempted suicide by cutting off his arteries.

After the security services moved in and the accused was arrested, forensics officers provided a "video" of the crime.

The security services kept the tool used in the crime, a knife, saving the husband's life, taking him to hospital and placing him under guard until his health improved.

Investigations revealed that there were family disputes between them after having three children, and the husband heard that his wife was preparing to file a dislocation case against him.

The accused confessed to the murder of his wife, saying: "I was married to Shadia from 2007, we had two children, we had marital problems and two months

ago I left the matrimonial home, travelled to Cairo and left my children and my wife because of the fights."

More Incidents

During the third day of the feast, in Giza governorate, in the Basrawi area of Imbaba, a 24-year-old man killed his mother, "64", after being stabbed in the neck, falling to the ground and breathing her last breath.

Investigations revealed that the accused of killing his mother was a drug user with psychological problems and had previously been treated at the Psychiatric Hospital in Abbasiya.

The investigation indicated that on the day of the incident, an argument broke out between the accused and his mother for trying to take money to buy a dose of drugs, and when she refused to assault her with a stab wound to her neck, she took her last breath.

In The Province of Manufiya, a young man killed his ex-fiancée inside her home in the village of Sedd. The criminal investigation team found that the accused was a 24-year-old coffee maker and the victim was his ex-fiancée, due to disagreements between them.

After the arrest, the accused confessed to the details of his crime, sneaking into the victim's residence and assaulting her with a knife.

 

Causes of Homicide

Dr. Amal Radwan, professor of sociology and family relations explained “Al Arabiya” network, explained that crime in any society is related to the conditions of society itself, so the increased rate of crimes in Egyptian society is related to its circumstances and characteristics as well as the changes that have occurred in it.

While on another hand, some observers see that one of the most important reasons was the weakness of religious prejudice and the misperception of religion, as society was now lurching in extremism, in addition to strictness and attention to appearance, not substance and true religion.

According to Radwan, there are also many mistakes that occur in education, the cornerstone of personality formation and upbringing, raising together, the absence of the role of parents in education, their preoccupation with material life, the attempt to provide the requirements of life and neglect of the emotional satisfaction of children, and the mistakes of education lead to a deviant generation.

Dr. Mohammed Hani, a psychologist, told “Al Arabiya” that high crime rates are largely linked to economic conditions and psychological pressures to which individuals are exposed as a result of many factors, including poverty, oppression and injustice, both at the family and social levels.

"As well as unemployment, poverty and economic pressures that play a key role in increasing crime and ignorance rates, the higher the cultural and educational level in society, the lower the crime rates, while widespread ignorance and lack of awareness lead to increased crime rates."

 

Academic Causation

According to a recent social study by Ain Shams University, there is a direct link between unemployment and illiteracy for women who commit murder against their husbands, with the proportion of working women or those who mix with others rising, but the same study linked drama to wife murders of their husbands, where women gained experience of murder and revenge.

According to another study by the National Centre for Social and Criminal Research, there is a link between poverty, unemployment and violence committed within the family, where husbands with a tendency to violence against their wives have been found to be unemployed or unable to play their family roles, and violent wives as wives of failed men in their working lives.

Researcher Ahmed Mawlana says that The strategies adopted by the Egyptian regime to deal with the problem of declining revenues, draining the benefits of servicing external debt for its annual budget and spending irrationally on economically limited projects such as the expansion of the Suez Canal, the construction of new presidential palaces, and the development of the arming and equipment of the police in order to address any future popular protests, are strategies that are borne primarily by the citizen under the state's strict tax policies”. 

“This is reflected in the anger and feeling of injustice among increasing segments of the citizens, which is reflected in the increasing lyrical Structural violence in society”, He added. 

“Although many social and political phenomena appear to be spontaneous and justified, they in fact carry deep dimensions that reflect the infrastructure of structural violence inherent in society. Examples include increased suicides, drug trafficking and abuse, thefts, armed robberies and contraband smuggling, threatening community stability”, He noted.