Viral posts have falsely claimed that Egypt’s parliament is preparing to introduce a law on allowing necrophilia in the country by letting husbands have sex with their deceased wives for up to six hours after death.
BOOM reached out to fact-checking organisations in Egypt who confirmed that the fake claim is old and has been revived. We also found that there was no official notification to support the existence of such a law either in 2012 when the fake claim surfaced or recently.
X accounts like Kreately Media that repeatedly spreads misinformation posted an image with a text on it saying, “Egypt’s new Islamist dominated parliament is preparing to introduce a law that would allow husbands to have sex with their deceased wives up to 6 hours after death"
Fact Check: Old hoax originated in 2012, misreported by media outlets
Upon running a keyword search, BOOM found that the claim about Egypt's government considering a law allowing necrophilia was first published in an opinion piece in Egypt’s government-owned Al-Ahram newspaper in April, 2012. An image of the piece appears at the 1:45 mark in this video, titled, ‘Egypt's Kandahar Parliament Discusses Law Allowing Sex with the Dead’
After this, in April, 2012, Saudi-based news outlet Alarabiya News incorrectly reported that Egypt’s National Council for Women (NCW) had urged the Islamist-majority parliament not to pass two controversial laws—one concerning the minimum marriage age and the other allowing a husband to have intercourse with his deceased wife within six hours of her death, quoting the opinion piece. This was then misreported by US-based Huffington Post and UK-based Daily Mail.
While Daily Mail has updated their story stating that the claim is “completely false”, Huffington Post still carries the headline, ‘Farewell Intercourse Law: Egyptian Parliament Reportedly Drafts Measure To Allow Husbands To Have Sex With Dead Wives’ with an updated note, citing Egyptian sources on X who claimed the report was false.
No verified evidence to support the existence of such a law
To verify the claim further, BOOM reached out to two leading fact-checking news organisations in Egypt, Akhbar Meter and Fatabyyano.
Both organisations told BOOM that there was no official proposal, discussion or evidence to support the existence of such a law either in 2012 or recently.
According to Ahmed Gamal, head of the fact-checking department at Akhbar Meter in Egypt, such a proposal was neither debated in parliament nor advanced to the level of becoming a Bill.
“It’s worth noting that the parliament of that period was dominated by Islamist groups, which made them a frequent target of criticism amid fears of introducing extreme laws or curbing women’s rights,” Gamal explained.
The official authority responsible for reviewing and approving any legislation related to Islamic jurisprudence in Egypt is Al-Azhar and Dar Al-Ifta, he added. In 2017, Dar Al-Ifta issued a statement on its official Facebook page categorically condemning the concept of “a husband engaging in intercourse with his deceased wife.”
The statement clarified that such an act is strictly forbidden in Islam, considered a major sin, and deserving of punishment.
Loay Khreis, a fact-checker at Fatabyyano told BOOM that the opinion piece in Al-Ahram was written by Amr Abdel Sami, who didn't provide any evidence to back up the information.
On April 30, 2012, Alarabiya News corrected its earlier report, stating that the Egyptian parliament had denied rumors about a so-called “farewell intercourse” law, which claimed a husband could have intercourse with his wife within six hours of her death. Islamist MP Mamdouh Ismail told the news outlet that the claim is false and “completely unacceptable,” refusing to comment further. Sami Mahran, the Secretary-General of the People’s Assembly, said he had never heard of such a thing and didn’t know where the news came from.
Gamal from Akhbar Meter also told BOOM that Mervat Tallawy, the head of the National Council for Women, denied claims in 2012 circulating in some media outlets about the council sending a letter to Dr. Saad Al-Katatni, then Speaker of Parliament, concerning the "Farewell Intercourse" law.
“She clarified that the National Council for Women did not send any letter on this matter because such a law was never proposed or discussed in Parliament,” he told BOOM.
Is there a law criminalising necrophilia in Egypt?
There is no specific law in Egyptian legislation that criminalises sexual acts with corpses, which would otherwise be classified as rape, Gamal told BOOM.
However, the Egyptian Penal Code imposes harsh penalties for rape and indecent assault, with punishments ranging from life imprisonment to the death penalty, depending on the severity of the offence.