By: Reem Hussein
Hend Shagie, 30, faced backlash after publishing a 10-minute video where she recounts the story of her rape. According to Shagie, she is the owner of an animal shelter which receives donations from several donors. Yehia, the suspect, came by her shelter (which, according to one person, is also her personal residence) as a donor of dry food for the dogs.
At one point, she mentions that she had known Yehia for only one week but then she states that she had met him two and a half years ago in an animal-rights protest in Egypt. Another circulating video has added to the controversy of the topic; in the video, Shagie and Yehia were seen sitting at a restaurant which gave the impression that she had known him for quite some time.
According to her, when he came over, (there were no witnesses) they started eating together and she immediately started feeling dizzy and this was due to a drug that he has put in the food.
She woke up 6-7 hours later only to realize what had happened and rushed to call him and he responded that “this is not the first time”. It is unknown whether he meant not the first time raping a girl or specifically her.
Yesterday, she was interviewed by Wael el Ibrashi in his TV show, “El 3ashera Masa2an”, in which her story has gone public. People have been questioning the validity of the information she gave in the video.
The reason why she did not resort to the police was, according to her, that she was too intimidated. At the time, she did not have the energy or the psychological ability to go to the unit of forensic medicine to check on her. So she waited for two months, and then published the video, that reached four million views on Facebook.
Shagie also did not contact her lawyer right away, instead she told him what had happened to her as if it happened to her friend because she was too embarrassed. Her family has been another question mark. In the video she mentions that she couldn’t face them with this brutal incident; one person states that she in fact had abandoned her mother many years ago and that her brothers are imprisoned for drug dealing.
She talks about her feelings as a victim and how she wishes she could kill Yehia but wouldn’t be able to, because of her good-natured heart. In addition, she had thought about suicide several times but her strength has kept her from doing that. She also states that she has received messages from Yehia threatening her of kidnapping.
Here are some of the comments on the issue:
Screenshot of her Facebook page:
No matter what is her personal story or her background, whether she abandoned her mother or whether her Facebook bio is accurate, she doesn’t deserve to get raped as some people have been attacking her. She shouldn’t be labeled as a liar just because in her video she sounds contradictory. She might have been confused or mentally unstable due to what happened to her. Until forensic medicine gets the final say on this matter, she shouldn’t be attacked, for all we know, she might be telling the truth.
