Egyptian Expert on Islamic Law Malika Zarrar: Sex Offenders Should Be Strung Up from the Feet and Torn Limb from Limb

In a recent TV interview, Malika Zarar, an Egyptian expert on Islamic law, called for harsher punishment for sexual offenders. "Such a man should be strung up by his feet in Tahrir Square, and then he should be Killed with a capital K. Each of us women... should have the right to cut off a piece of his flesh."

Following are excerpts from the interview, which aired on the Egyptian Al-Hayat 2 TV channel on June 10, 2014.

Malika Zarar: There is no such thing has harassment. It is rape. If you take a look at the penal code – by God, it would make you laugh. The law refers to "violation of women's honor." It confuses between violation of honor, indecent exposure, and rape. It is ludicrous.

One gets 3-7 years for violation of honor. The appropriate punishment is the one reserved for hiraba in its most severe forms: "The penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger is that they be crucified, that they be killed, that their hand and foot on alternate sides be chopped off, or that they be banished from the land."

I demand the abolishment of the word "harassment," because we are making fools of ourselves.

Interviewer: So what is it if not harassment?

Malika Zarar: It's rape!

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I say to the president: Egyptian women demand that a special tribunal be established, to rule specifically in cases of the violation of women's honor.

Interviewer: Specifically for that...

Malika Zarar: Yes, with the top experts on criminal law presiding.

But how can we help? Some say that a 15- or 16-year-old offender is a minor. Human rights advocates say: We can't do this to him. He's a minor. What minor?! You are defying our Lord's decree that when they reach majority at 13, they can be tried like anybody else.

We are not worth less than the Kuwaitis. In Kuwait, they grabbed eight people and executed them in the city square. I am no calling for these people to be merely executed. Such a man should be strung up by his feet in Tahrir Square, and then he should be Killed with a capital K. Each of us women, Egyptian or not, Arab or not, should have the right to cut off a piece of his flesh.

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