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Prosecution in northern Egypt’s Gharbiya governorate detained two men after allegations of blackmailing a minor with explicit, doctored images, writes Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram.
Egyptian Streets reports that Basant Khaled, a 16-year-old girl, took her own life as a result of the young men distributing fake images of her after she refused their sexual advances.
Upon circulation, the images were a source of grief and relentless bullying for Khaled, from peers, neighbours, and her own teachers.
Her subsequent suicide note to her mother went viral and garnered mass outrage on social media via the Arabic hashtag #Basants_right_must_be_ensured.
Khaled’s handwritten letter reads:
“Mom, believe me: the girl in those pictures is not me. These pictures were Photoshopped, I swear! I’m a young girl, Mom, and I don’t deserve all that’s happening to me. I’m suffering from depression and I feel like I’m suffocating. I’m really tired of this. It’s not me, you raised me well.”
In Egyptian schools and universities, blackmail is a wide-spread and unaddressed problem enabled through patriarchy instilling shame upon girls and uncritically empowering men.
Many social media users have blamed the parents for not standing by their daughter.
The National Council for Women issued a statement condemning the incident, asserting “the necessity of issuing more laws that penalise this sort of blackmail as well as launching awareness campaigns for women and girls so they know their rights and how to protect themselves from these crimes," and that families should believe their girls and stand by them.