Egyptian Convert Endures Life at a Standstill – on the Run

Daughter unable to attend school, church; acid thrown on her jacket.

ICC Note:

El-Gohary and his daughter have been forced into hiding for almost two years now after attempting to charge the religious status to “Christian” on their state issued identification cards.

By Wayne King

5/25/2010 Egypt (Compass Direct News) – The apartment where an Egyptian convert from Islam to Christianity was living in hiding with his teenage daughter is across the street from a mosque that regularly broadcast anti-Christian messages. “Do not shake their hands. Do not go into their homes,” an imam shouted through the minaret loudspeakers as 57-year-old Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary looked through his window and grimaced. For nearly two years, he and his daughter have been forced to hide after he sought to change the religious designation on his national ID card to “Christian.” El-Gohary had taped over the locks of his apartment, as well as taped shut the inside of windows and doors, to guard against eavesdroppers and intruders. He taped over all the drain holes of the sinks to keep anyone from pumping in natural gas at night. Unable to obtain work because of his quest, El-Gohary has to rely on the kindness of other Christians to bring him food and water and the occasional donation. Possibly the worst part for him is watching the suffering of his daughter, Dina Maher Ahmad Mo’otahssem, a reflective 16-year-old whose life should be filled with friends, freedom and self-discovery; she is instead confined between four walls. She cannot go to school or attend church. Now she and her father fear she could be beaten, kidnapped and forcibly converted, or simply killed. One afternoon last month, as she was walking to a market with her father, El-Gohary noticed smoke and vapors coming off her jacket. The canvas was sizzling and dissolving, as someone had poured acid over the jacket. El-Gohary ripped it off her and threw it away. “I don’t understand why I am being treated this way,” Dina said. “I believe in something, Christianity – I chose the religion because I love it. So why should I be treated this way?”