TV presenter given jail term over ‘single mothers’ show

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | An Egyptian court has sentenced a female television presenter to three years in jail after she spoke on her show about pregnancy outside marriage, a judicial source said on Friday.

Doaa Salah was convicted of “outraging public decency”, the source said.

The court also ordered her to pay a bond of 10,000 Egyptian pounds ($565) so she can remain at liberty ahead of a possible appeal.

Salah went on trial after a lawyer filed a complaint against her following a show on the private television channel An-Nahar in July.

During the broadcast, Salah discussed the possibility of a woman becoming a single mother, suggesting that a woman could marry only to conceive and then divorce.

She then reportedly asked the audience about their opinion, and then summed up by saying that “everyone rejects the idea (of pregnancy outside of marriage), and not everything that happens abroad can happen in our society”.

Sex outside marriage is taboo in Egypt’s conservative society.