Egyptian man murders his bride

Firas Press reports on a horrific crime in Egypt, but its reporting indicates something even worse in Arab society.

In December, an Egyptian man from Zagazig named Hassan Mustafa Mohamed Hussein murdered his new bride, Abdullah Ahmad Bahgat, on their wedding night.

The reason? Because he thought that she wasn't a virgin.

He was just sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder.

Up until now, the story might be considered to be just another criminal story, similar to murders that happen daily throughout the world and reported as "strange but true" by wire services all the time.

The more sickening part is that the prosecutor waited for 45 days before charging Mr. Hussein in order to gather more relevant information.

The first important thing that he needed to determine was whether the groom was insane.

But the second part was to see if the bride was really a virgin. And, indeed, the forensics team determined that she was.

Clearly, if she had been found to have been a non-virgin, his sentence would have been much reduced.

Obviously no judge in Egypt would blame the murderer nearly as much in that case. Neither would the prosecutor.