Basma ran home to her mother crying. On her way back from school, she ran into two bearded men who shouted: “Cover your hair,” attached to other things I can’t mention here.
This wasn’t the first time Basma got intimidated going to school. So, her mother tried a quick fix.
She dressed Basma in isdal, an Islamic garb, which covered her from head to toe.
When the Volunteer Rep couldn’t convince Basma’s mother to change course, he went to the priest. The priest told him: “Most of the families in my parish are doing the same thing.”
Safety has become the obsession of many in Egypt. But if Coptic women start dressing in Islamic attire because they are afraid, what other pressures will fear lead us to accept?
Many fear that Islamists in Egypt will bring the country back to the Dark Ages. We can’t do much about Islamist movements, but we can do something about safety.
I remember back in September, His Grace Bishop Angaelos said that the thing really driving today’s radical trend in Egypt is basic insecurity on the streets: lack of access to food, fuel, safe transportation, good education and appropriate housing.
Our volunteer Reps—90% of our total workforce, work every day to get families that kind of access.
Your support to families like Basma’s is a power that can never be smothered by fear or endangered by changing seasons.