Egyptian man cuts off his own penis because his family wouldn't let him marry a poor girl

Family axes wedding plans, Egyptian cuts off penis:

A 25-year-old Egyptian man cut off his own penis to spite his family after he was refused permission to marry a girl from a lower class family, police reported Sunday.

After unsuccessfully petitioning his father for two years to marry the girl, the man heated up a knife and sliced off his reproductive organ, said a police official.

The young man came from a prominent family in the southern Egyptian province of Qena, one of Egypt's poorest and most conservative areas that is also home to the famed ancient Egyptian ruins of Luxor.

Traditionally, marriages in these conservative part of southern Egypt are between similar social classes and often within the same extended families -- and are rarely for love.