Three months after 20-year-old Marianna Rezk Shafik Attallah disappeared, her family and fiancé remain convinced that she was kidnapped by a former police constable. However, police refuse to cooperate, insisting that she left on her own accord.
According to a September 8 report from Compass Direct, Marianna left the medical lab where she worked in El-Fayoum, 100 km south of Cairo, on May 30 to pick up a patient's blood sample. She has not been heard from since. Her fiancé began searching for her at her workplace. The owner of a neighbouring business told him that an employee of his, Ali Mahmoud Abdel Rasoul, had kidnapped the girl. Rasoul had previously been fired from the police department for bad behaviour.
When the family tried to file a police report, the officer refused to give them a case number. A security service officer told them that Rasoul had moved south to Sohag and that they should stop looking for Marianna because she had gone with him voluntarily. Rumours also began spreading that Marianna had converted to Islam, something the family cannot accept because she had such a strong Christian faith.
Hundreds of young Coptic women disappear each year. They are reported as kidnapped, but the families' claims are difficult to prove, since security officials frequently prevent any contact with their daughters.
Pray that Marianna will be able to return to her family. Pray for her family during this difficult time. Pray that the Egyptian officials will be willing to oppose these kidnappings and forcible conversions.
For more information on the problems faced by Christians in Egypt, click here.
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