Friday March 29th, 2024
Download SceneNow app
Copied

MB Wives Set for Divorce?

An Egyptian cleric has issued a fatwa that allows the husbands of imprisoned female Muslim Brotherhood members to divorce their wives.

Staff Writer

An Egyptian cleric has issued a fatwa that allows the husbands of imprisoned female Muslim Brotherhood members to divorce their wives. Muzhir Shaheen urged the men to prioritize their country’s national interests by ditching their “sleeping cell” wives who belong to the banned movement. He said: "Many suffer because they find [out] that their wives are Muslim Brotherhood members, and that there is a ‘sleeping cell’ lying beside them in bed.” The radical cleric asked husbands to give up the "personal benefits" of staying with their wives, in favour of serving "the interests of the country and religion."

However, the head of an Egyptian high-level religious institution, Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, Majdi Ashour, branded the fatwa as nonsense. He said: “Fatwas on divorces have specific characteristic since it affects the union between partners, which is sacred. Families are the unit of society and it is an important pillar which Islam urges to protect.”

Meanwhile Ali Abu al-Hassan, former head of fatwa committee for top religious authority, Al-Azhar, labeled these kind of fatwas as haram. He added: “This kind of fatwa should only be issued by specialist scholars and official sources,” he said, urging clerics not to mix politics and religion.