Egypt's first female ship captain Marwa Elselehdar: 'I was blamed for blocking the Suez Canal'
By Team Newsable | First Published Apr 4, 2021, 10:54 AM IST"I was shocked," she said, according to the report. "I felt that I might be targeted maybe because I'm a successful female in this field or because I'm Egyptian, but I'm not sure," she added.
Egypt's first female ship captain Marwa Elselehdar was at the centre of a fake news campaign that blamed her for bringing one of the world's most strategic shipping routes, the Suez Canal, to a halt, a BBC report said.
But when reports of the container ship Ever Given being wedged across the Suez Canal emerged, 29-year-old Elselehdar was on duty hundreds of miles away in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.
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"I was shocked," she said, according to the report. "I felt that I might be targeted maybe because I'm a successful female in this field or because I'm Egyptian, but I'm not sure," she added.
Meanwhile, Egypt's Suez Canal Authority said Saturday that a shipping traffic jam caused by a giant container vessel getting stuck on the crucial waterway for almost a week has been cleared.
"All the ships waiting in the waterway since the grounding of the... (MV) Ever Given have completed passage," SCA chief Osama Rabie said in a statement by the canal authority.
The 200,000-tonne megaship was refloated on Monday, by which point the backlog had reached more than 400 vessels.
Elselehdar is among the 2% of the world's women seafarers, the report said. "People in our society still don't accept the idea of girls working in the sea away from their families for a long time. But when you do what you love, it is not necessary for you to seek the approval of everyone," she said.
Rumours about Marwa Elselehdar's role on the Ever Given were largely spurred by screenshots of a fake news headline - supposedly published by Arab News - which said she was involved in the Suez incident.
The doctored image appears to be from a genuine Arab News story, released on 22 March, which profiles Marwa's success as Egypt's first female ship captain. The picture has been shared dozens of times on Twitter and Facebook.
Several Twitter accounts under her name have also spread false claims that she was in involved with the Ever Given.
When rumours emerged about her role in the Suez blockage, she feared for the impact it would have on her work.
"This fake article was in English so it spread in other countries," says Elselehdar. "I tried so hard to negate what was in the article because it was affecting my reputation and all the efforts I exerted to be where I am now."
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