Egypt investigates case of expat assaulted by 5 women in Kuwait
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has contacted its Kuwaiti counterpart to
investigate an alleged assault of an Egyptian citizen by five women in
Kuwait.
Fatima Aziz posted a video of herself crying on social media last week
as she described how she was assaulted while she was out walking with
her family and friends. According to Aziz, she called out to stop a
Kuwaiti female cyclist whose bicycle was heading towards her friend’s
child. The cyclist did not stop, and the child was knocked to the floor,
after which the woman got off her bike and was joined by four others
who proceeded to shove Aziz to the ground.According to Aziz, after the
women realised she was Egyptian, she was severely beaten; her hair was
torn out, her finger broken and she was bruised all over from being
kicked as she lay on the ground.
Police were called and Aziz reported the assault, adding in the video
that she was confident the authorities would help her get justice, but
asked for her video reporting the attack to be shared.
“I’ve lived in Kuwait since 2011 and all my work is with women. This has
never happened before. I won’t back down with the charges because this
is our right as expats,” she said in an interview on Saturday.
Egyptian Minister of Immigration and Expatriate Affairs Nabila Makram
confirmed this week that her department was working with Kuwaiti
authorities who have already arrested several women in connection with
the case.
“The dignity of Egyptian citizens and Egyptian women in specific is a
red line. However, we respect Kuwaiti authorities and judiciary,” Makram
told reporters.
However, she criticised Aziz going public with the story on social
media, stressing that Egyptian expats must have more confidence in their
country’s embassies.
The case has sparked anger and division on social media, with many
Egyptians condemning the assault as racist. Some have also drawn
parallels between the Aziz’s story and another incident between a
Kuwaiti national and an Egyptian expat last year. In September, a
Kuwaiti court sentenced a man to 17 years in prison for attacking an
Egyptian worker in the Shuwaikh industrial area. The victim was left
comatose after sustaining several head injuries as a result of the
assault.
One Egyptian’s angry video rant on Twitter against Kuwait, in which he
threatened to assault Kuwaitis in Egypt, was shared by several media
outlets after going viral, prompting the Egyptian cybercrime unit to
launch an official search for the man.
However some Kuwaitis have expressed disbelief in Aziz’s story, with
many criticising the reception in the media, accusing Egyptians of
damaging the reputation of the country.
On Sunday Kuwaiti MP Safa Al-Hashem responded to Egyptian Minister
Makram on Twitter, calling on her not to interfere in the affair if she
respects the sovereignty of Kuwaiti authorities as she had claimed. She
also compared the Egyptian response to Aziz’s attack with the case of an
Egyptian student who was killed after being assaulted by a gang of
girls in the UK, claiming that her death had not warranted the same
level of sympathy from the government.
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