Egypt's Islamic institutions set four conditions for freezing women's eggs

CAIRO 4 September 2019: Following the controversial announcement of Egyptian women Reem Mehanna on freezing her eggs, Egypt's Dar al-Iftaa, the government's principal Islamic legal institution for issuing fatwas (religious edicts) announced four specific rules that regulates Muslim women egg-freezing.

Dar al-Iftaa stated the four rules as; First, the frozen eggs should be used only in marriage and should be fertilized by the husband’s sperm. In case eggs were fertilized after divorce or death, it is religiously forbidden.

Second, the eggs should be kept in highly-safe places and under strict control to prevent intentional or inadvertent confusion with other frozen eggs of different women.
Third, the fertilized egg should not be put inside a different woman’s womb. Meanwhile, the fourth condition provides that the freezing process should not negatively affect the egg to prevent birth defects.

Breaking social taboos, Egyptian girl announces freezing her eggs

CAIRO - 2 September 2019: Breaking social taboos and Egyptian conservative norms, an Egyptian woman announced on her Facebook account that she had frozen her eggs 2 years ago. "I decided to announce publicly that I had frozen my eggs. YES, I had frozen my eggs [...]

Breaking social taboos and Egyptian conservative norms, Mehanna announced on her Facebook account that she had frozen her eggs 2 years ago.

“I decided to announce publicly that I had frozen my eggs. YES, I had frozen my eggs […] when I asked the doctor to make this surgery, he was shocked, telling me ‘I’d never heard this request from a girl in Egypt.’,” said Reem Mehanna posted on her Facebook account.

Mehanna added that she underwent an abdominal ova freezing surgery and her doctor made a laparoscopy to get out her eggs and put themin a freezing environment, saying “the frozen eggs stay for 20 or 30 years without expiring.”

Egg-freezing is not a burning issue in Egypt only, but also in the United Arab Emirates. In April 2019, the UAE drew up a draft law to allow freezing eggs, sperms or embryos in a way to prevent surrogacy or egg and sperm donation. Lebanon is another Arab country where egg-freezing is being conducted.

Additional reporting by Samar Samir