ECWR Calls for a Rapid Enactment of VAW Law
April 6, 2017
(Cairo March 30, 2017) Recently VAW crimes, especially domestic violence, have increased rapidly and in an alarming way. The results of the study of the economic cost of gender based violence in Egypt, conducted by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, revealed that the percentage of marital violence is not negligible as around 46% of the previously married women between the age of 18 and 64 years in Egypt were subject to one of form of violence perpetrated by the husband, whether psychological, physical or sexual violence. The study has also revealed that 43%of women suffered from injuries as a result of martial violence annually.
A few days ago, the media has reported that a husband assaulted his wife and beat her for a whole day using a wooden stick after her tied her with a belt preventing her from moving. This assault has resulted in several injuries in different parts of the wife’s body as was started in the medical report. This crime will most likely be classified as a simple beating crime whose penalty does not exceed two years of imprisonment, according to the Article 242 of Egyptian Penal Code stating that ” If the beating or the wound does not reach the degree of gravity prescribed in the two previous Articles, the perpetrator shall be punished with detention for a period not exceeding one year or a fine not less than ten pound and not exceeding two hundred Egyptian pounds.”
