The killing of a twenty-year-old girl in Egypt sparked widespread anger on social media. Maryam was killed by running under the wheels of a “microbus”, on Tuesday, after an attempt to steal her by force in the Maadi neighborhood, south of the capital, Cairo.
The details of the incident spread widely and quickly over the Internet, and the hashtag #Maadi_Madi was issued on the communication sites in Egypt, and many expressed their indignation and condemnation of what Maryam was subjected to, demanding accountability for the perpetrators and the application of the law to curb similar crimes.
According to the BBC, Maryam’s case opened the door to broader discussions about women’s rights, and the need to preserve the safety of women outside, especially when leaving the house on their own.
Tweeters called for the protection of women, denouncing their inability to exercise “the most basic rights, such as walking in the street.”
Under the hashtag # Mariam_Ven’s right, Twitter users demanded that the perpetrators be held accountable and that the maximum penalties be applied.
Video footage from surveillance cameras showed a minibus escaping from the scene of the killing of a girl in the Maadi suburb of the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
According to a statement by the Egyptian Public Prosecution today, the preliminary investigations into the death of the 24-year-old girl, Maryam, in the Maadi neighborhood, indicated that she “was with the intention of theft and not harassment.”
The statement said that “a passenger car (microbus) with two passengers, whose driver’s escort snatched the victim’s bag that she was wearing on her back, which led to her head colliding with a parked car and then her death.”
The statement added that the prosecution “was able to obtain five video clips from the surveillance machines overlooking the site of the accident, which showed that the car in which the two defendants were traveling was passing very quickly.”
The statement indicated that, “by viewing the victim’s body, it was found that she was injured in separate parts of her body, as revealed by inspection of the scene of the accident traces of blood stained with sand in the vicinity of one of the cars.”
The statement quoted eyewitnesses as saying that Maryam was parked with another girl “from the car in which the (Public Prosecution) found bloody traces near her. During their stop, a white microbus (minibus) approached a white-colored microbus, with the data of its rear metal plate blurred, and two people were traveling in it. The driver accompanied the victim’s bag, which she was wearing on her back, and clung to it during the movement of the car, which disturbed the balance of the victim, so her head hit the front of the car that was parked next to her, and the two perpetrators fled with the bag, while the girl who was accompanying the victim moved away in fear during the accident.
