Al-Azhar says women pregnant by rape must abort baby

Straits Times reported AL-Azhar, Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning, on Sunday declared that any woman pregnant by rape must abort the baby immediately in order to maintain 'social stability'.

Not MAY abort it, but MUST.

'A raped woman must terminate the pregnancy immediately upon learning of the pregnancy if a trusted doctor gives her clearance for the abortion,' the Islamic Research Council of the Cairo-based institution said in a statement.

So I guess "the life of the mother" exception works in reverse in Egypt. If the life of the mother is in jeopardy by having the abortion she does not have to. At least she is lucky she does not live in Nigeria. There she would be required to have the baby, and then when it was weaned she would be stoned to death, unless she could find four male witnesses willing to testify it was rape.

This would ensure 'social stability,' it said.

Well that area certainly needs social stabilit.

According to the independent Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR), two women are raped every hour in this country of 76 million. Many factors contribute to the increase in sexual harassment including rising unemployment, the huge cost of marriage and the fact that sex outside marriage is forbidden, experts say.

Not sure why the first to lead to increased numbers of rape, and the latter one may mean rape is charged when it is not really rape. I really think the blaim lies in the cultural and religious devaluation of the rights of women, and the fact that rape is allowed in the Qur'an.

Egyptian law bans abortion except on the grounds of 'necessity", which includes instances when a woman's life or health is in danger or in cases of fetal abnormality.

or now 'social stability'