Egypt's ultraconservative Nour party kicked out lawmaker Anwar el-Balkimy today, after discovering that the bandages covering his face were not, as he had been claiming, the result of a vicious beating from armed gunmen, but rather of a nose job. It's Egypt's first scandal of the post-Mubarak era, the New York Times points out, and it's especially scandalous because Nour is part of the Islamist Salafi movement, which views cosmetic surgery as a sin.
Many Egyptian lawmakers had flocked to Balkimy's bedside when they thought he'd been the victim of an attack, and the Nour Party had even demanded the interior minister be questioned to see if he was involved. But the owner of the hospital soon ratted Balkimy out, and though Balkimy apologized, Nour says it set an example by forcing him to resign. "It is no use apologizing," a party spokesman told Al Masry Al Youm. "We reject demonizing the entire party for the mistake of one member." (More Egypt stories.)
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