After public opinion in Egypt was preoccupied for a long time with the case of the murder of a girl who was stabbed and slaughtered by her colleague in the Dakahlia Governorate, north of Cairo, the Egyptians were surprised by the same scene being repeated in another nearby governorate in the same way.
This time in front of the Zagazig Court, in Sharkia Governorate, and in front of passers-by. Using a knife, a young man named Islam stabbed his colleague Salma, the two of them are 22 years old, and then fled on the run before the Public Prosecution Office announced, on Wednesday, his arrest.
It was a security source He said earlier that a dispute between the accused and his colleague at the Faculty of Media in Zagazig developed into an argument between them, so he took out a white weapon and stabbed her, before the police forces arrested him, with the knife with which he committed the crime.
A statement by the Public Prosecution stated that the accused stabbed the victim several times, while she was entering the entrance to a property where one of her friends worked.
Investigations indicated that the accused had tattooed the name of the victim on his arm and chest.
These facts are reminiscent of the scene of the killing of Naira, who was stabbed and slaughtered by her colleague, Muhammad Adel, in front of passersby, before entering Mansoura University to take the end-of-year exams, and he later said in the investigations that he wanted to take revenge on her because she refused to associate with him.
This case sparked a great debate among those who sympathized with the perpetrator, while others said that the killing had no justification, and many Egyptians on social media are now calling Salma “the new Naira Ashraf.”
Many netizens said she was “killed simply because she gave birth to a woman in a patriarchal misogynistic society”, but in this conservative country, many blame the girl who “should not befriend a man or wear tight clothes”.
Another user considered that “as long as there are supporters who make excuses for the perpetrators of these crimes, they will continue.”
According to the United Nations and the Egyptian Statistics Authority, in 2015, about 8 million women were subjected to violence in Egypt by their husbands, relatives, or their surroundings, in public places.
And by discussing the accused Islam who killed Salma, he justified his killing of the victim out of revenge for her, because they had a previous emotional relationship during which he helped her, but she recently abandoned him and ended that relationship without his desire, according to what he said, according to the newspaper “Al-Masry Al-Youm”.
The victim’s decision to separate from the accused aroused the latter’s ire, so the idea of killing her brewed in his mind, similar to the killing of a Mansoura University student, as stated in his confessions.
The accused said: “I wanted (I want) to heal my boil… and she abandoned me… I wanted to take revenge on her… She was stabbed a lot. I don’t know (I don’t know) how many.”
And on the communication sites, some said that sympathy with the perpetrator may have encouraged this student to commit this crime, such as director Amr Salama, who wrote in a tweet: “When I saw some semi-humans sympathetic to Naira’s killer, I expected similar incidents to happen, and unfortunately it did happen, so I like to tell them Your justification of the offender makes you a criminal, and the blood of Naira, Salma and others is on your neck.”
A student named Salma in Zagazig was killed in the same way that Naira Ashraf was killed. A boy stabbed her to death.
When I saw some semi-humans sympathetic to the killer of Naira, I expected that similar incidents would happen, and unfortunately it did happen, so I would like to say them, your justification of the offender makes you a criminal, and the blood of Naira, Salma and others is on your neck.
— Amr Salama (@amrmsalama) August 9, 2022
A number of activists on the Internet and the media had shown a degree of sympathy with Mohamed Adel, and indicated that he was “psychologically hurt because of her and that she took advantage of him”, and “blood money” was announced in order to pardon him, and the hashtag # Victim_Mish_Criminal spread.
The Egyptian activist, Mai Saleh, called in an interview with Al-Hurra over the phone, “for a social study of what is happening in the murders. The crime is not only related to murder, but the steps accompanying the killing, whether people’s sympathy, even the position of the perpetrators themselves, and the idea of recognizing the crime and that he won for himself and not He cares about the death penalty, these things are dangerous to society.”
She asked, “What is this comfort in dealing with murder? The offender deals with killing others and killing himself comfortably. Where did this relief come from?”
She added that the case “has moved from the idea of danger surrounding women to danger surrounding society as a whole, if he adopts this thought, and if the young man is willing to sacrifice his life and the life of his family for revenge.”
Saleh points to the spread of the phenomenon of non-peaceful and inhumane termination of relations, whether in the institution of marriage, as happened in recent crimes, or during the association between a young man and a girl, which is a “problematic” matter.
She said: “We are unable to see the scene properly, and the issue goes beyond just passing legislation that protects women, and work must be done at all levels to research this issue, whether through research, police and judicial institutions, because it is a dangerous indicator.”
The Jordanian professor of sociology, Dr. Hussein Al-Khuzaie, in reference to incidents of this kind in Egypt and Jordan, stresses the issue of “the perpetrator’s violent revenge on the victim, his selfishness and his non-acceptance of the idea of abandoning him, the absence of a culture of dialogue between members of society, intolerance of opinion and non-acceptance of the other opinion.” “.
It refers to the culture of domination and control, especially in males, and the failure to resolve personal disputes between the two parties quickly, so the dispute develops and reaches a process of revenge and revenge, with the offender feeling that the separation is an insult to his dignity, so the reaction is very violent to the point of abuse of his victim.
the martyr #Salma_Bahgat A 20-year-old university student was killed by the killer, Islam Muhammad, with 16 stab wounds in Egypt for refusing him and saying “no” to the killer. This is the last case the killer had two hours before committing his crime. I wish the public execution of this monster criminal because women’s lives are important and women are not numbers! pic.twitter.com/iTV4M241aK
— Bluebird (@Femord1ei) August 9, 2022
He adds, in a telephone interview with Al-Hurra website, that this person is often selfish and believes that this girl has become his property, and such selfish personalities can only deal with people through force, violence and control, and this person does not admit the error or that it may be the reason The victim tries to get away from him.
The sociology professor explains that these crimes occur in public places due to the changing culture of societies in cities. The perpetrator knows that people in our current societies will not intervene for fear of being harmed and because they prefer to leave these issues to the competent authorities.
And he warns against “imitation” through the media, which may motivate the “hidden aggressive”, that is, those who have aggressive tendencies that have not yet appeared, to commit similar crimes.
By portraying the perpetrator as a hero, “rumors that are chasing the victim are spread and the media is used to promote these rumors,” according to the researcher.
And the famous YouTuber, Mona Abu Shanab, had sparked great reactions, after she described the killer of Naira Ashraf as a “victim”, and said in a clip that no one stood next to him.
Maryam Al Kaabi, the Emirati activist, considered in tweets that Abu Shanab wanted to “mobilize sympathy and support for Muhammad Adel and harm the reputation of the victim and her family in a manner that employs religion as a cover.”
About two weeks ago, the publication of a horrific video of Naira from inside the mortuary, showing stab wounds in separate areas of her body, sparked a state of intense anger, and revived the controversy over the case.
The victim’s sister, Shorouk Ashraf al-Gharib, accused those who shared this clip of trying to undermine her and who heard her again, and wrote: “They left nothing against her. No one defended her, you published pictures of her and stabbed her honor, although the prosecution acquitted her.”
At the time, one of the commentators wrote: “I want to deliver a message to everyone who forgot the victim and sympathized with the killer. What do you think about me now (now), do you consider this an injustice to the killer? After I saw these cruel scenes of killing and stabbing in different parts of the body, and then the slaughter in a manner barbaric?”
After Salma was killed, similar comments came out:
The dirty campaign of sympathy with the one who killed Naira Ashraf directly caused yesterday’s crime.. the killer was equipped before it and the one who strengthened his heart this campaign… he wrote to his friends on the groups that they stand beside him and testify with him and I think in the same planning he wrote to groups that they are using him financially and psychologically as they Say a bright killer… filthy and horribly evil
— nora gamal (@noragamal68) August 10, 2022
The wave of sympathy with a bright killer produced a new killer in Sharqia in less than two weeks. At this rate, our production of killers will exceed the volumes of our industrial and agricultural production, and we will quickly turn into the largest dinosaur park in the world. pic.twitter.com/hlSUdPqeiP
— ahmed ezzarab (@ aezzarab25) August 10, 2022
In a subsequent tweet, director Amr Salama called for the trial of “everyone who justified and sympathized with the killer of Naira Ashraf .. who promoted the idea of sympathy with the perpetrator and demonizing the victim.”
I was hoping that Islam would not try the killer of Salma, the girl of Zagazig, without trying everyone who justified and sympathized with the killer of Naira Ashraf, who promoted the idea of sympathy with the perpetrator and demonizing the victim.
— Amr Salama (@amrmsalama) August 9, 2022
Maryam Al Kaabi wrote: “In the previous period, there were systematic campaigns in the media to discredit the victim, Naira Ashraf and her family, in exchange for mobilizing sympathy with her killer and his family to reduce the sentence, campaigns that resulted in victims of a sick thought that justifies the crime and turns the killer into a victim and the victim into a worthy criminal. What happened to her:
In the previous period, there were systematic campaigns in the media to discredit the victim, Naira Ashraf and her family, in exchange for mobilizing sympathy with her killer and his family to reduce the sentence.
These campaigns resulted in victims of a sick ideology that justifies the crime and turns the killer into a victim and the victim into a criminal who deserves what happened to her.
It is a disaster— Maryam Al Kaabi (@maryam1001) August 10, 2022
A person named Iyad wrote that he knew Salma’s killer, and that he “regretted his friendship” and published text messages between them showing the extent of the killer’s attachment to the victim, and his unwillingness to separate from her, and that he had multiple relationships with other girls.
He stressed that the girl was “a moral character” and that Islam “did not preserve her”, accusing him of being a source of “harm to people” in his life, and after calling him a “victim”.
In her interview with Al-Hurra, the activist, Mai Saleh, warns that the expected poor economic situation in the coming period will lead to “more killings,” noting that the economic situation gives an “easy justification” for the dead, which is “unacceptable and women should not pay the price of pressure.” economic”.
She said that the more equal the situation, “the more vulnerable women will be in this society, and the more vulnerable they are to violence.”
It also points to inherited customs and traditions towards women that give this justification, and points to a new era in which adolescents view the world through virtual screens, and when they go out to the real world, they are unable to control their emotions.
The widespread violence on the Internet, especially in video games, affects the thinking of young people in the real world, according to Saleh.
She also points to the change of the educational system, which used to train generations to discipline and control emotions, and says that education currently does not train young people to control emotions, which allows a person united with the virtual world to use violence in society.
The activist, as well as the professor of sociology, fears that girls and women will be harassed in the coming period due to the violence.
Saleh says that what is happening “gives an indication of further restrictions, as families may prevent their daughters from educating even in the basic stages, and they may be prevented from going out to the labor market.”
Al-Khuzaei says that what is happening “gives a strong message to society to reject in the future any attempt at acquaintance, communication or meeting, even if it is for the sake of the innocent relationship, between a male and a female, and makes girls prefer to stay away from establishing friendships so that they do not face a similar fate to Naira and Salma.”
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