posted 11 March 2005 01:55 PM            

Article: The Forbidden Affairs in Egyptians Families, by Yasser Elziiat

"This subject might be shocking, disgusting and repulsive to our dear readers but it also unfortunately true & accurate.15 years ago, I was in a position to hear the confession of an Egyptian girl, she was 20 years, and she told me that she wasn't a virgin, that her uncle- her mother's brother- had took her virginity,she became pregnant & had to abort it. Who are to be hold responsible
here? the girl, her mother, her uncle or all of them, with time I found that this girl wasn't an anomaly, that incest is very common in Egypt, but no body have the courage to talk about it.

Now after 15 years, I felt happy when I found this book that dares to talk about this issue, "Incest in our Houses" by Dr. El-Magdob, published by Madboly Books. The book is a serious social study of incest in Egyptian society & the first of it kind in the Arabic literature, the book reveal that incest is becoming a serious problem in our society & it is more widespread than I thought before, the book
gave us a historical background & it was a big surprise to me when I read that incest was common among the great Pharons, that they allowed brother-sister; father-daughter marriage.

The book then move to the study of random samples, 200 cases that show 18 different incest case, brother-sister, father-daughter, mother-son,nephew-aunt, uncle-nice etch the cases that we see in the book,might be considered a symptoms of our social or economic problems which we must addressed it, in one case a wife who her husband was
working abroad for along time, she encouraged her son to be drugs addict so she can persuade him to sleep with her.

Dr. El-Magdob assert that the living conditions in Egypt encourage these abnormal behavior, 30 % of the Egyptian families live in a one room flat, where all the family share the same room & also the children- brothers & sister- sleep together on one bed or on the floor next to each other.

like the case of an 18 years old young man who was
living with his parents & five brothers & sisters in one room , he was accused of getting his younger sister pregnant, he justified what happened by saying that he & his sister were sleeping in the same bed & he just couldn't prevent what happened.

another factors is that because of the economic problems, young men can't afford the cost of marriage so they end up till age 35 without marriage, according to government report which was published in November 2002 there are 3.5 million single female over the age of 35 never married & 5.5 million single male, we should take into consideration what happen when these people live a small room with each other & where there are no privacy & they practically have no other way to fulfill their sexual needs outside marriage, so they end up looking to their siblings as a sexual objects.

The other thing that was a big surprise to me is that in Egyptian law,there is no legal article with reference to incest, in most cases where somebody report, usually the police officer keep the report but do nothing, and the reason for that is to protect the family name.
Finally I hope that we can discuss this problem more openly before it get out of hand & try to fix our economic problems; otherwise we will have a huge social problems over the next years.[End of translation]

well, I must say that this is one of the very few articles you could find in an Egyptian newspaper that deal with incest. After I read the article on Monday, I went to the bookstore to get my copy of the book, it not a big book, only 347 pages, I finished reading it & what strike me is that the reviewer when reviewing the book concentrated
mostly on showing the bad side of incest, like the story about the mother who forced her son to be drugs addict so she can persuade him to sleep with her or the girl who was raped by her younger brother.

Reading the book I found many other cases that show the other side of incest & the reviewer had ignored completely to mention it in his review. an example:

posted 11 March 2005 03:41 PM            

I know many people in my country, who lived all their life without sex...only cause they are so religion and facefull for God. They didnt find husband/wife, but they saw it as a mean from God.
And in this religion,sex without marriage is wrong...
Anyway,they are normal,happy people. Sex is not most important part of life.

I dont believe,that people are more sexual here, i dont believe that it is matter of country...
But why ,why this happen here??
Why people cant control their self...
This is so sad...and so wrong...

posted 12 March 2005 10:39 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by lynn:
Repulsive as it is, incest is a problem everywhere. I had no idea that it was so common here! I can't imagine a brother and sister living as man and wife!

---