An Egyptian woman whose husband sent her a divorce declaration by text message is to take the case to court to find out if the separation is legally valid.

After missing a call from her husband on her mobile phone, Iqbal Abul Nasr said she received a text message from him saying I divorce you because you didn't answer.

Under Sharia (Islamic) law, men don't have to file for divorce through the courts, but need only issue a unilateral declaration, I divorce you, repeated three times, to end their marriage.

Ms Abul Nasr, an engineer from Cairo, had been sent two previous divorce text messages from her husband.

If the court declares the troubled couple divorced, theirs will be Egypt's first reported case of divorce by SMS.

The subject of text message divorce is much debated in the Muslim world, and the practice has been banned in several countries, including Malaysia.

In what is claimed to be the world's first divorce by text message, a Saudi man has snapped nuptial ties with his wife by sending an SMS.

The man was in Iraq when he set the legal precedent by sending the SMS, informing his wife that she was no longer his spouse, and followed up with phone calls to his two relatives, confirming the split, the Arab News reported.

A court in Jeddah finalised the split after summoning the two relatives to check whether they had received word of the husband's intention.

Saudi Arabia practises a strict form of Islamic injustice, under which a man could divorce his wife by simply saying I divorce you three times.