Certainly it was not a traditional honor killing. I was thinking, however, that it might be a woman's version of an honor killing, if that makes any sense at all. I don't really think that Egyptian women who see the movie would describe the woman's murder of a man as an honor killing, but subconsciously, a female Egyptian audience may sense a degree of similarity to a "real" honor killing, whose purpose is to restore a degree of honor to a man who has been dishonored by a woman. Or maybe Egyptian women wouldn't see any such similarity at all!
Frankly, Mellie, I'm just trying to make sense of that episode in the movie, since it was so baffling to me.
I think I learnt one thing from the movie, however. It is probably not uncommon at least in Egypt for couples to promise each other marriage and then start sleeping with each other, even though the formal wedding has not taken place. Clearly women would be very vulnerable in such a system, since their society condemns them so mercilessly if they lose their virginity or, God forbid, become pregnant and then find themselves abandoned by the man who promised to marry them.
Finally, as for what you said about the possibility for unmarried women to choose polygamy as a way to achieve a higher status in the Egyptian society. I don't think that Said, a very poor person, would be taken at all seriously as a man with many wives. I think people would laugh at the sisters for sharing such an unimpressive husband. Besides, I'm not sure that the Egyptian society would allow sisters to marry the same man. In any case, the movie did not discuss the possibility of polygamy at all.
I may of course be completely wrong about the reasons why polygamy was never mentioned as a possibility by the movie.
Ann
