WATANI International
23 July 2010
Hundreds of Copts, including some 50 priests from the Upper Egyptian village of Deir Mawwas in Minya some 350km south of Cairo, have been demonstrating since last Thursday at the grounds of the St Mark’s Cathedral in Abassiya, Cairo. They were protesting what they saw as intentional delay by the security apparatus in searching for a priest’s wife who was reported missing last Monday.
Missing
The 25-year-old Kamilia Shehata Zakher, who is a Science teacher at the Beni-Salem village school and the wife of 30-year-old Father Taddawus (Thaddeus) of Mar-Girgis church in Deir Mawwas, was discovered missing last Monday evening.
On Sunday, Fr Taddawus said, he had lunch at home with his wife after which he left for the near-by village of Abu-Khalqa to officiate at an engagement ceremony there. Being his home village, Fr Taddawus took with him his two-year-old son Antoine and told his wife he would be spending the night at his parent’s place down there.
At around 9:15pm Kamilia called her husband from her cell phone to tell him she was through with her housework and would go to her father’s place, which is some 100 meters away from their home, to spent the night with her parents. She asked to talk to Antoine and had a short conversation with him.
When Fr Taddawus went home the following day, Kamilia was not home. She had never been to her parent’s place, and her cell phone was closed. He contacted all their family, friends, neighbours and even the neighbourhood hospitals but no-one knew anything about his wife. It was then that it became very clear she was missing; he headed, together with her father, to the police station and reported his wife had disappeared.
Fr Taddawus insisted his relation with his wife was quite normal; their differences were nothing out of the ordinary. He accused an Azhari teacher named Mohamed Salah for involvment in her disappearance because he had harassed her before.
Protest
Anba Aghapious, Bishop of Deir Mawwas and Dalaga said: “So far we have no news about the priest’s wife despite promises from the local security authorities. Copts gathered at the papal premises in Cairo to refer the problem to more senior officials or even to President Mubarak”. He said that relations between Copts and Muslims in Abu Mawwas are good and calm and that most of Muslims were frustrated at the disappearance of the priest’s wife.
“I hope the security authorities manage to solve the mystery as soon as possible. I am certain they can easily resolve this crisis if they wish”, Anba Aghapious said.
Fr Wissa Sobhi, deputy to the bishop of Deir Mawwas, told Watani the Copts were demonstrating because the disappearance of Fr Taddawus’s wife was being disregarded by the police. Some 500 Copts, he said, had gathered on Wednesday at the Bishopric of Abu Mawwas in protest of the situation; they were besieged by the security forces and prevented from heading with their demonstration outside the bishopric grounds.
“Kamilia is a reputable young woman who would not normally ‘disappear’ in the wake of any trivial disagreement with her husband,” Father Silwanus Lotfi of Anba Abra’am and Saint Mary’s Monastery at Dalaga and a friend of Father Taddawus, said. As an Egyptian citizen, she has the right to be protected and returned home to her family.
Many complaints
“There have been many complaints lately of the ‘disappearance’ of young Coptic women, several of them underage. None of them was ‘found’ by the security authorities; they are still missing and their families are heartbroken. Something has to be done,” he said.
For his part, Mounir Megahed, coordiantor-general of the movement Egyptians Against Religious Discrimination told Watani that it was the duty of the security apparatus to resolve the crisis as soon as possible, and to transparently announce the results of the investigations they conduct. Whether the young woman concerned left her home willingly or was abducted, it was the right of everyone to know. Freedom of belief is guaranteed by the Egyptian Constitution, and ought to be implemented indiscriminately, he said.
Until Watani went to press the young woman had not been found. Pope Shenouda III, who is on a visit to the United States, is closely following up on the matter.