Egyptian talk show host Duaa Sayed Salah has been sentenced to three years in prison for supporting single mothers on live television.
According to media reports, an Egyptian court charged her with "inciting infidelity and immorality," demanding that she pay 10,000 Egyptian pounds ($567) in bail money.
This comes after Salah said women who want to become mothers can get pregnant out of wedlock through temporary marriage contracts or by resorting to sperm donors.
In an episode aired on July 2017, Salah took the stage wearing a fake baby bump to discuss the controversy surrounding single mothers.
"You can be the mother and father at the same time," she said, "women can become single mothers after divorce, a husband's death, or if a woman simply decides to have a baby without getting married."
Drawing reference to the 2017 romantic comedy titled Bashtery Ragel ("I am Buying a Man"), in which a female character decides to temporarily marry a man for the sole purpose of getting pregnant, Salah went on to talk about single mothers in the West, where women seek sperm donors.
"[In the West] you would give birth and become a mother while remaining single, without having someone (a man) giving you headaches," she said.
"Here, in our Arab communities, we have to sugarcoat things a bit, just like in the film Bashtery Ragel."
She concluded by asking, "If we actually had single mothers in our community, what would you do to us?"
Here is the video:
According to Al Arabiya, Salah discussed the issue after the story of a single mother named Hadeer Mekawi caused a stir in Egypt earlier this year.
Known as the "first Egyptian single mother," Mekawi was secretly married under customary law (Urfi marriage) when she got pregnant.
When she refused to get an abortion, her husband divorced her before she delivered the baby, prompting her to file for custody over her newborn son.
The outcome of her case remains unclear.
The Media Syndicate accused Salah of "crossing the line"
The lawsuit was filed by lawyer Ashraf Naji, who accused Salah of "incitement to immorality and committing dishonorable acts."
The head of Egypt's Media Syndicate, Hamdi Al Kanaisi, deemed Salah's episode as a "moral and professional violation."
He said she "was promoting unethical ideas that are alien to the community and that destroy the Egyptian family dynamic."
Salah has yet to comment on the matter.