Can You Follow His Islamic Logic?

Male Egyptian judge says women judges un-Islamic

Egyptian women must not sit as judges because it would be against Islamic law or Sharia as they would have to spend time alone with men, a male Egyptian judge was quoted as saying Saturday.

A woman judge would "contradict Article Two of the constitution," which states that the principal source of legislation is Sharia, judges' syndicate president Yahia Ragheb Daqruri said.

The judges' syndicate position "is based on the consensus of doctors of law and the principles of Sharia," the Al Masri Al Yom daily quoted Daqruri as saying.

"When a woman works as a judge, her work requires her to be alone in a room with two or more male judges to deliberate ... Is this appropriate?

"Citizens and others present [in court] will be surprised by the presence of a woman judge. A woman judge will also become pregnant at some point, and that will certainly have an impact on the judiciary's prestige and on judges' public image," he said, without elaborating.

"Giving birth can also have an impact on the cases she is dealing with being dealt with correctly," he said, again without elaborating.

I hope she wouldn't get pregnant from one of her fellow judges. That would really be against the law.

And in not-quite-but related story:-

The 23-year-old turned himself in to police earlier this week claiming he killed his unmarried 43-year-old aunt "for reasons related to family honor," it said, quoting an official.

The suspect "claimed he went to visit his aunt at midnight [last week] and when he knocked on the door she did not respond quickly," the official told the Jordan Times.

"He spotted a man jumping from his aunt's balcony and running away. When his aunt opened the door, he asked her about the man and she told him it was none of his business," the report said.

The suspect told investigators he "became enraged," and struck her on the head with a wooden stick before strangling her to death with her own scarf.

An autopsy performed on the victim at the National Institute for Forensic Medicine showed that she was a virgin and died of multiple blows to the skull.

The victim is the fourth woman to die from "honor killing" in Jordan since January.