CAIRO — The Arabic hashtag “Stop_Mabrouk_Attia” trended in Egypt over the past few days, as social media users demanded that the Islamic preacher who justified violence against women, be prevented from appearing in the media.

Al-Azhar University professor Mabrouk Attia sparked widespread controversy over comments he made Oct. 21 during the “Happening in Egypt” program on MBC Masr channel to a woman who was beaten and tortured by her husband.

He said that women tend to exaggerate when it comes to complaining, and no man would resort to this degree of violence unless strongly provoked, accusing wives of bringing domestic violence upon themselves.

The Speak Up initiative, a feminist initiative to support victims of violence in all its forms, shared the video on its Twitter account and commented, “When will violence against women stop being justified so casually in the media? The worst part is that this is happening in the name of religion at a time when religion is the farthest from promoting such harm. The program host was surely shocked, but there are thousands of comments applauding the preacher.”