Four die when father without sons stabs seven daughters

A man angry with fathering no sons stabbed four of his seven daughters to death as they slept and seriously wounded the other three in southern Egypt today.

Abdel Nasser Ibrahim, 47, a mosque prayer caller in Tima, 215 miles from Cairo, repeatedly stabbed his seven sleeping daughters with two knives in a spree lasting just several minutes, police said.

Killed were Samar, 15; Isra, 10; Fatima, 8 and Zeinab, 7. The screams of the three wounded daughters alerted neighbours who contacted police.

Ibrahim’s wife of 18 years left the house before the killings to go to stay with her parents following an argument she had with her husband over failing to give birth to a son, an official said.

Police arrested Ibrahim who claimed to have stabbed his daughters during a moment of temporary insanity because he feared they would one day become promiscuous. Neighbours said he had not allowed his girls to attend school.

Ibrahim burst into tears during his interrogation before being transferred to the prosecutor’s office for further questioning, the official said. He has not yet been charged.

Southern Egypt is the most conservative part of Egypt, where education for girls has only recently been improving because of a government campaign. Men and women don’t mix and family feuds involving blood revenge are common.