'I was just fondling her... With a knife,' says alleged wife-murderer

An Egyptian man currently under investigation for allegedly killing his pregnant wife of five months said he killed her accidentally when he was “joking around” with her.

Shorouq Mohammad, 28, was subjected to an array of domestic abuse by her husband which she allegedly hid from her family before he ended up killing her.

She was four months pregnant when he allegedly stabbed her twice in the neck and back early in September.

Shortly after the murder, Shorouq’s husband told the courts that they were only joking around before he “accidentally” killed her whilst “fondling her with the knife”.

“I had the knife in my hand whilst fondling her and we were joking around,” her husband told the police, according to local Egyptian news outlet Youm7.

“If I actually intended to kill her, I wouldn’t have rushed her to the hospital,” he claimed in his account.

But testimonies from friends and neighbours suggest otherwise, revealing Shorouq has suffered from consistent abuse at the hands of her husband. It was only after her death, Shorouq’s friends revealed to the family the details of the marriage hidden from them, which consisted of continuous abuse, they confirmed.

Neighbours also invalidated his account of “accidentally” killing Shorouq after they said they heard the couple arguing before the brutal attack took place.

‘Why didn’t she tell us?'

“Her death was a complete shock,” Shourouq’s father, Mohammed Barakat, who was on holiday at the time of her death, told Youm7.

“On the day of the accident I received a call from her father-in-law about 3:30 am telling me that my daughter was very sick and was taken to hospital. We thought there could be a problem with her pregnancy so we rushed to the hospital.”

"We arrived by 6am only to be left in shock when we found out that she’s dead.”

The doctors told me that she had two injuries – one deep stab wound from being stabbed in the neck, and another one in her back. It’s crazy that he thought he actually testified those wounds came from joking around with her," Mohammed added.

Shorouq’s mother had also refused to believe that the murder was accidental.

“I wouldn’t believe this for a second. How could this even be the case when the neighbours themselves heard shouting and insults?” she said.

“She met her husband through a university friend and was engaged to him for a year before the wedding. We knew nothing about the problems that she endured with her husband until after her death when her friends decided to tell us everything,” her mother added.

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.