Egyptian women killed for 'not cooking and birthing girls'

Two women in unrelated incidents have been murdered by their husbands in Egypt earlier this week; one woman over not giving birth to any girls and another murdered over a meal she was unable to cook for her husband.

One of the women, in her 20s, got into an argument with her husband, in which he shamed her for only giving birth to girls, Arabic-speaking media reported on Thursday.

After being shouted at, the late mother-of-four retaliated at her husband and said it is the male genetics that determine the sex of the child, therefore his genetics are technically responsible for having no sons.

Because of her comment, the man lashed out and proceeded to throw her off the apartment balcony from the fifth floor.

An eye witness informed the police that a woman was thrown from the apartment building. 

When the investigation started, the man claimed that she had accidentally fallen to her death, before admitting to his crime.

In a separate incident also reported on Thursday, another man killed his 22-year-old wife for not being able to prepare him lunch.

The man allegedly asked his wife what she had made for lunch after returning from work, only to be told that she was unable to cook because their gas cylinder at the time was empty.

He then started to attack her, eventually stabbing the young woman to death.

Ongoing crisis

According to a study by the Egypt Demographic and Health Survey in 2014, 30 percent of married women in Egypt have experienced domestic abuse by their partners. 

The survey said 25.2 percent of married women are victims of physical abuse at the hands of husbands, whereas 18.8 percent of married women suffer psychological abuse and 4.1 percent suffer from sexual abuse from their husbands.

The report added that teenage brides are more likely to experience abuse, with 35.3 percent of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 being subjected to spousal domestic abuse.