11 jailed for forcing two men to wear nighties

It was in revenge for man posting his wife’s picture

An Egyptian court has sentenced 11 people to three years each in prison for forcing two men to wear women’s night gowns and parading them in public to humiliate them, a local newspaper reported yesterday.

The verdict was delivered by a criminal court in the southern province of Fayyoum, Al Watan newspaper said.

Eight of the defendants were tried in absentia. The ruling can be appealed.

The case dates back to July last year when a man in a village in Fayyoum posted online photos of his wife in private poses after a dispute between them.

His act enraged the wife’s family who took revenge by kidnapping their brotherin-law and coercing him into appearing in public clad in a woman’s nightie.

They paraded the man across their village in the gown in order to humiliate him, the court was told.

Three months later, the husband’s family retaliated in the same way.

The scene was originally enacted in a hit Egyptian soap opera shown last year.

The court ruling comes a few weeks after families of both spouses agreed to end their row at an informal reconciliation session sponsored by the province’s members of parliament, local clerics and senior security officials.

In conservative Egypt, using female appellations in referring to a male is considered derogatory and an insult to the man’s family. The behaviour can trigger street fights and even vendettas.