Egyptian serial wife arrested

Egyptian films question women's traditional roles

A 32 year-old Egyptian woman has been arrested for marrying five times without divorcing, according to Al-Ahram, the official daily newspaper.

Sabah Abdel Kader is reported to have wedded for the first time in Cairo in 1987, and to have had four children from the marriage.

Eight years later, she moved to the south of the country, and soon married again.

According to officials investigating the case, Mrs Kader later lived in the northern Nile delta, where she married another three men, without divorcing any of her former spouses.

Five children

One law for men, another for women

She had a fifth child with her fifth husband.

Mrs Kader now faces charges of "fornication and fraud" says the newspaper.

Under Islamic and Egyptian law, a man may have as many as four wives, but a woman is supposed to take only one husband at a time.

Guinness man

Earlier in the week, according to the French news agency AFP, an Egyptian man was making a claim to the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most married man.

The 78-year old musical agent claims to have married 203 women, although in his case he did divorce his previous partners.