CAIRO — Call it the curious case of the nose job.

The new Egyptian parliament’s first scandal broke this week amid disclosures that an ultraconservative Islamist attempted to mask his plastic surgery by convincing fellow lawmakers that his bruised and bandaged face was the work of an attack by thugs.

Sympathy engulfed Anwar Bilkimy after initial reports indicated that he was beaten and robbed. Egypt, after all, is experiencing a troubling jump in violent crime, including the beating of a presidential candidate in an attempted carjacking. But Bilkimy was undone by doctors stunned at a ruse that crossed the bounds of vanity and religion and was drenched in cue-the-violins melodrama.

With pressure intensifying on him, he resigned Monday from his Salifi Al Nour party and parliament, which was sworn in six weeks ago.

Many ultraconservative Islamists condemn plastic surgery as tampering with God’s creation. The case has exposed the foibles of politicians and become a diversionary chuckle in an Egypt beset with deep economic and political problems as it makes the messy transition from military rule to democracy.

Bilkimy told police last week that he was stopped and beaten by gunmen and then robbed of 100,000 Egyptian pounds, or about $16,500, while traveling in his car on the highway between Cairo and the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

Bilkimy was visited in his hospital room by top lawmakers, including parliament Speaker Saad Katatni. But the tale began quickly unraveling. Dr. Mahmoud Nassef told investigators that Bilkimy’s bandaged face was a result of plastic surgery.