Gynecologist who called on men to give their kids DNA tests has detention renewed

CAIRO - 18 November 2024: A doctor who appeared in a viral Facebook live video calling on men to take DNA tests for themselves and their children had a "breakdown" after her detention was renewed for 15 days pending investigation.

Wessam Shoaeb, a gynecologist who works in the city of Kafr el-Dawar, Beheira governorate in the Delta, streamed a video on Nov. 5 while driving, detailing sensitive situations she purportedly encounters in her clinic, from pregnant minors to women pregnant outside of wedlock. She claimed such pregnancies are a “phenomenon,” hence families should stop positive parenting, return to corporal punishment of girls, and men should take tests to make sure they are their fathers’ and their kids are biologically theirs.

Khaled Amin, assistant to the secretary-general of the Medical Syndicate, told Al-Kahera Wal Nas TV channel on Saturday that he asked Shoaeb to remove her video at the beginning of the storm of criticism she faced, but as her views accumulated millions upon millions, she did not heed the advice. 

The syndicate opened an investigation into her before she was arrested by the police. The syndicate received complaints that she violated patient privacy, refusing to aid a patient, and stirring public opinion for asking men to take DNA kids.

In a later video, Shoaeb said that as long as she did not reveal the patients’ identities, she has not revealed medical secrets. She added that wage was only “raising awareness.”

The prosecution did not, however, charge Shoaeb of the syndicate’s accusations. Rather, she faces charges of violating the principles and family values ​​of Egyptian society with the aim of disturbing public order and harming peace, maliciously spreading false news that could disturb public peace and security, and misusing social media to stir up confusion among the public.

After her arrest on Nov. 12 and the renewal of her detention on Nov. 15, Amin said the prosecution procedures against her were “too cruel,” and that the syndicate’s purpose is only disciplinary in nature. 

People on social media also dug up older posts on her Facebook, widely sharing them to portray her as a contradictory person, a misogynist, or as an influencer who invents obscene stories to advance her online popularity. 

Some of these posts include claims that women come to her clinic in the middle of the night to complain they are unable to have intercourse with their husbands, but in fact, Shoaeb alleges, they only want to avoid intimacy. 

Another post that was widely shared was that a patient complained about sore private parts because her husband had punished her by inserting chilis inside her, and Shoaeb wrote she “could not stop laughing” about that.