CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Egypt’s ultraconservative Islamic Al-Nour party said today one of its lawmakers has resigned from Parliament because he got a nose job and then lied about it, claiming he was beaten.

Lawmaker Anwar al-Balkimy told police he was attacked last week during an attempt to steal his car while he was driving on a highway on Cairo’s outskirts. He said his attackers also robbed of him more than US$16,000.

That led to an outcry against Egypt’s government for failing to prevent such crimes, a stream of visitors to the wounded lawmaker in his hospital room and prominent pictures in local newspapers of his heavily bandaged face.

Then it turned out there was no carjacking, no beating and no robbery. Al-Balkimy just had a nose job.

The problem with that is that his party follows a strict line of Islam that forbids cosmetic surgery as meddling in God’s work.

It was especially embarrassing for al-Nour, just weeks after a surprisingly strong showing in Egypt’s parliamentary election, where it captured a quarter of the seats by championing one of the world’s strictest interpretations of Islam, similar to Saudi Wahhabism.

Like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jamaicaobserver

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamaicaObserver