One year after Muslim extremists in Egypt accused her of committing blasphemy during class, a Christian teacher who suspected she would not get a fair trial remains trapped in exile.
Demyana Abd Al-Nour, 25, a first-year social studies teacher at Sheikh Sultan Primary School in a village in Upper Egypt, fled the country last May, before she was formally charged with violating Article 98f of the Egyptian Criminal Code. Although human rights organizations across Egypt roundly condemned the allegations against her as false and a violation of human rights, prosecutors brought charges against Al-Nour, and the court refused to dismiss the case.
Human rights groups also condemned the charges because they came at a time of widespread hostility toward Christians, with blasphemy accusations increasingly used to persecute Copts. Al-Nour's decision to flee Egypt and seek protection in France appeared to be justified when the court later refused to admit witnesses and reports demonstrating her innocence. On June 11, 2013 she was convicted and fined an exorbitant amount, 100,000 Egyptian pounds (US$14,270), far beyond her low-income family's ability to pay.
Remaining in hiding as her appeals process slowly grinds through the Egyptian legal system, she is awaiting the final outcome of the judicial proceedings, said Safwat Samaan, chairman of "Nation Without Borders," a human rights and development group headquartered in Luxor, Egypt. Samaan said Al-Nour is mentally preparing herself to become a refugee if the case isn't dropped.
"She has been in France since the case started," Samaan said. "If she is sentenced, she will apply for a political asylum, but if the hearing is in her favor, she might come back." Keep reading
Photo: Pharaoh Akhenaten and his family adoring the Aten, the solar disc.
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