Cairo: Egypt, a conservative Muslim country, has yet to recover from the shocking news that a medical physician was involved in having sex with a dozen women in his private practice and recorded the acts.
Labelled in the local media as the ‘doctor of vice', Al Saeed Al Deemeri is being tried at a misdemeanor court in Giza, south of Cairo, on charges of violating the medical code of ethics by having sex with his patients and capturing explicit scenes on CDs, which he distributed among his friends.
Al Deemeri in his early fifties claimed that he had secured the consent of the women before having sex with them inside his clinic in the working-class area of Al Waraq, north of Cairo.
He told investigators, the women were ready to have sex with him in exchange for performing free surgery to help them restore their virginity, which they had allegedly lost before coming to see him.
The high-profile case has prompted MP Mohammad Quta, a member of the ruling National Democratic Party, to forward a draft bill to the parliament proposing tougher penalties against sexual harassment at medical institutions.
“Under the current law, the offender is dishonored for 10 years and is prohibited from holding top posts. This is not enough,'' said Quta.
“These offences are tantamount to rape, which should be punished by hard labor and a heavy fines ranging from LE100,000 to LE300,000,'' he told Gulf News.
According to his draft bill, medical professionals carrying out hymen-suturing operations on girls, who have lost their virginity, must be jailed for a minimum 10 years and barred from practicing medicine for at least five years.
Losing virginity is a social stigma in Egypt and may cost the girl her life in what is locally known as honor killings usually committed by angry relatives. Virginity-restoration operations are illegal in Egypt.
“Punishment in its present form against these offences is not adequate,'' admitted Abdel Moneim Al Barbari, who heads the Ethics Committee at the Egyptian Doctors' Association. He, however, contends that these offences are individual acts.
“I support toughening the penalty to deter such repugnant offences,'' he told this newspaper. “I even suggest that doctors involved in these offences should be barred from pursuing the medical profession forever.''
