An Egyptian man is being publicly prosecuted for horrifically murdering his wife, throwing her off a balcony, because she "was only able to give birth to girls," throughout their marriage.
The defendant had been fighting with his wife over the matter on the day of the murder, Al Anbaa newspaper reported this week.
During the heated argument, the woman hit back at her husband, telling him that a child's gender depends on God's will and is also "more related to the father's genes."
That's when the man "lost it," carrying the mother of his four young girls and throwing her off the balcony of their fifth floor apartment.
The husband had initially lied to police, telling them it was all an accident
Authorities covering the case recently arrested the man, who had initially claimed his wife accidentally fell to her death.
This came after investigators uncovered evidence incriminating him.
After his arrest, the defendant confessed to murdering his wife, telling police officers that he killed the victim, who was in her late twenties, because she had "failed to give him a son."
People are outraged at the news
"This man is sick."
"He's surely insane"
"He destroyed his children's lives"
Some Arab societies still put pressure on women to bear boys
Even though it's the year 2018, there are still many Arab societies who favor boys over girls when it comes to family planning.
This stems from the sexist, misogynistic rhetoric that males keep their family names running over generations.
In a previous statement to StepFeed, Lamis, a Saudi social worker who often works on cases related to new mothers in the kingdom, explained that while it isn't widespread, the phenomenon of families favoring boys over girls isn't uncommon.
"Unfortunately, even though we've advanced greatly in recent years, to many families in the kingdom, boys are still more favorable than girls. There is this pressure, especially when a woman is pregnant with her first child, for it to be male. This is because we live in a patriarchal society that always tends to put men above women. I've come across so many cases when expecting mothers were put under extreme pressure just because they were pregnant with girls," she explained.
Even though she was talking about Saudi Arabia in specific, her words apply to patriarchal societies that exist in countries across the Arab world.