Shura members condemned the United Nation declaration against violence towards women and called Egypt's signing of it apostasy from Islam on Sunday evening. The upper house of parliament's Committee on Human Rights said the declaration would allow for abortion, gay marriage, and sexual freedom to spread in Egypt. “We all know that those behind such declarations have domestic methods for spreading their ideas through women's rights organisations," Salafi Asala Party member Adel Afifi said in the committee's Sunday meeting. Other members attacked the declaration as an affront to human rights in Middle Eastern countries that are “conservative" and “cannot allow" for homosexuality and premarital sex. Salafi Al-Nour Party Shura Council member Mohamed Al-Azab called for a distinction between “fairness" and “equality" and said that there should be fairness between men and women but not equality, because the two genders are complimentary not equal. The Muslim Brotherhood had released a statement, mid March, denouncing the declaration for “contradicting principles of Islam and destroying family life and the entire society". The declaration is the outcome of the UN 57th Commission on the Status of Women, held in New York from 4 March to 17 March. Additional reporting by Rana Muhammad Taha
