Islam is the most popular religion in the Middle East , and most Muslims there are Sunnis . And when it comes to fertility, the Sunni denomination — which is predominant in countries such as Egypt, Turkey, and Syria — has some relatively strict rules. Sunnis who want to boost their odds for conception through artificial insemination or in-vitro fertilization are only allowed to use their own gametes (i.e. eggs and sperm), and they must be married before they can use these techniques. So if Shahira was a Sunni and her husband had poor sperm quality or a very low sperm count, she may be out of luck if she wanted to have a child ( up to 50 percent of infertile men in some regions have an uncorrectable condition ), since she wouldn’t be allowed to use donor sperm.