Friday, July 30, 2010

Christian Convert Nagla al-Imam: Disappearance after 'Questioning'

Nagla al-Imam
(Image from Mark Durie)

Readers may recall a post on Nagla al-Imam nearly two years ago. In that post, I was concerned about some strange views on rape that she had expressed while still a Muslim and wondered if she continued to hold to those peculiar views after her very public conversion to Christianity. Well, I still don't have any word on that, but I recently noticed that she has undergone some rigorous 'questioning' by an official in the Egyptian security forces despite her very public conversion and her status as a human rights lawyer.

The Australian Anglican minister Mark Durie, a linguist with expertise in Arabic, offers details of the questioning, which is reported upon in the original Arabic in a video showing Nagla al-Imam with clear facial bruises:
[The official] went to take hold of the cross [on my necklace] . . . . He held the chain and tightened it around my neck. He was showing that he was threatening to cut the chain, or to hurt my neck, or do anything . . . . Holding my hair, he bashed my face against the desk. He slapped my face more than once, and punched me in the ribs, and on my arm. By this time I was bleeding from the side of my mouth . . . . When I went back [home] I couldn't sleep. My ribs and my body were hurting, my neck and my shoulders . . . . But my real hurt was not the [physical] pain. My real hurt was that there was no real reason for them to do this. I was simply a piece of flesh, an object of defamation and slander. I was always damaged goods.
The facial bruises visible in the video lend a degree of credibility to this testimony, so despite speculations by commenters and me that Ms. al-Imam might have undergone a very public conversion to Christianity out of a sense of self-preservation, possibly aimed at "generating notoriety to protect herself," that seems not have been the result, regardless whether it was her motive.

Ms. al-Imam has since disappeared . . .

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2 Comments:

At 11:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi!

This is NOT the same Nagla Al Emam who became a Christian.

The one that became a Christian is here:

http://nacopts1.blogspot.com/2010/07/law-enforcement-officers-or-thugs.html

 
At 4:19 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Let me help you with that link: Law enforcement officers or thugs? Naglaa's case.

This seems to be the same story. Why do you say that the two Naglas are different? Do you mean that the photo is wrong? I borrowed it from a website that ought to know the true Nagla, even if the spellings are slightly different.

Jeffery Hodges

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