Egyptian Women Blame Lebanese Pop Star For Her Murder

"We are very judgmental, we forgot the crime, and we remember how she dresses."

This is the analysis of Rima Sabban, a sociologist from the United Arab Emirates working at Zayed University in Dubai, of the recent murder of Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim. Tamim had been having an affair with Egyptian businessman and politician Hisham Talaat Moustafa (who owns the Four Seasons in Cairo, among other properties).

When Moustafa told her he could not marry her because he did not have his mother's permission (and -- although this doesn't prevent him from taking another wife in Egypt -- he also already has a wife and three children) Tamim left him and fled to Dubai. Moustafa then hired Mohsen al-Sukari, a former Egyptian state security officer, to kill her for two million dollars. Sukari went to Dubai, knocked on Tamim's door and, when she answered, slit her throat and stabbed her.

The photos of Tamim's body hit the pages of Arab newspapers and a high-profile investigation ensued that ultimately led to Sukari and Moustafa, and revealed taped conversations in which Moustafa suggested that Tamim should be run over or thrown off of a building. Sukari later confessed that Moustafa had wanted her severed head before paying up for the killing.

Moustafa was originally sentenced to death by hanging, but managed to get his sentenced reduced to fifteen years by exercising some political muscle (and presumably, paying up). Moustafa can appeal to reduce his sentence even further and will probably be released in several years.

Egyptian women, meanwhile, have this to say about Tamim's murder:

"We don’t want our daughters, sisters or mothers to be or look like her ... I’m glad this happened so she can be an example to our children."

"If he killed her, this means she’s done something outrageous to drive him to it."

"She made him kill her, and she deserves it."

These women are bankers and lawyers; the professional elite of Egyptian society who presumably have more power and hold less ardently to traditional values than the millions of Egyptians who still live in intense poverty. And yet according to New York Times reporter Mona El-Naggar, every single one of these women she interviewed had the same response: the singer deserved it.

A Lebanese gender and women's studies researcher questioned about this described it as "common spontaneous response" in a society in which women are blamed for their rape, assault, and murder. Obviously, Tamim did something wrong: tempted the man, hurt his feelings, left him, dressed and behaved seductively. The media reinforces this image by running photos of the singer in skin-tight outfits, making sultry faces at the camera.

Tamim was thirty when she died. Not only will her murderer walk away with a light tsk-tsk, but those who should be mourning her and expressing outrage over her death are essentially colluding with him, shrugging their shoulders and saying, guess you shouldn't have smiled that way and you had it coming and it's your own fault, anyway.

Photo credit: Broma