Pro-suckling sharia professor in hot water

A lecturer at Cairo's al-Azhar University—the Yale Law School of the Sunni legal world—is in hot water after issuing a fatwa that proposes a novel method of circumventing traditional Islamic provisions for segregating the sexes. If a man sucks on a given woman's breasts five times, she may legally proceed to reveal herself to him, declared Ezzat Atiya, who heads the university's department dealing with the Hadith. Needless to say, Atiya's fatwa has tantalized the media and outraged colleagues:

Atiya's unusual opinion was widely publicised by Arabic-language satellite television channels and featured in a discussion in the Egyptian parliament. But after controversy in the Egyptian and Middle East media, university president Ahmed el-Tayeb suspended Atiya pending an urgent investigation into his opinions, the Egyptian state news agency MENA reported."

With his job on the line, the maverick professor has rescinded the fatwa. He will no doubt be remembered and reviled as the professor who liberated — albeit ever-so-briefly — conservative young Egyptians for a short, grope-ridden period of intermingling over a few sweet spring days.