"Farewell Beni Suef," Nashwa El-Enein said to herself as she boarded the bus leaving town. The City of Cairo lay seventy miles to the south, and from there, she would board a plane bound for Europe, presumably never to return. As a nation, Egypt is complex, culturally and politically, but at times, it's a hard place for a woman. Nashwa has always been strong-willed, but even she knew when it was time to get the heck out of dodge. Nashwa didn't want to be buried in Egypt, let's put it that way...
With Egyptian politicians and clerics up in arms about the actions of Egyptian model Salma El-Shimy, who took some provocative ruins in front of Egyptian historical sites, society was once more in uproar about women's rights and limitations. Nashwa wasn't famous like Salma El-Shimy but she would soon be infamous. Once the authorities discovered what she'd done, she would surely be arrested and put to death. Nashwa wanted to be out of Egypt before then...
What has Nashwa done? Why does the young Egyptian woman look over her shoulder at the villa which she shared with her husband Hossam and his family? Five feet nine inches tall, curvy, dark-haired and bronze-skinned, the brown-eyed beauty had a look of grim determination on her face as she took a cab to the bus station. When a woman has had enough, nothing and no one will make her change her mind. What drove Nashwa to such extremities, though?
"This is your aleasha al akhir, your last supper," Nashwa thought as she dined with her husband Hossam, his overbearing mother Malia and of course, his father Amir. The unsuspecting trio ate the delicious sweetmeats and oatcakes she'd made, unaware of their poisonous content. Nashwa was all smiles as Hossam, Malia and Amir consumed the fatal dishes. They wouldn't feel the effects for hours, she'd made sure of that. They simply went to bed, and did not wake up.
"It didn't have to be this way," Nashwa said to herself as she checked up her husband, father-in-law and mother-in-law in their beds. They lay there, no longer capable of drawing breath. Silent at last. Silent as the grave, come to think of it. Too bad Nashwa would not be sticking around for the funeral. As far as Nashwa was concerned, Hossam the idiot and his cruel, backwards family got exactly what they deserved.
When Nashwa and Hossam met at Cairo University two years ago, he was handsome and charming. Nashwa was studying business management and Hossam was studying civil engineering. They fell in love, had a passionate courtship and got married. The couple graduated, and then moved to Hossam's hometown of Beni Suef. That's when everything started to go wrong.
Hossam and his parents were simple country folk, quite unlike Nashwa, who'd visited places like Paris, France, and London, UK. Nashwa wanted to lead a life like no other. She wanted to become a force to reckon with in the Egyptian business world. Hossam once supported Nashwa's dreams, as any husband worth his salt should, but once they moved in right next to his parents villa in Beni Suef, he changed. Hossam became controlling, and his parents went from friendly and charming to downright intrusive. It wasn't long before Nashwa began to chafe under such unexpected pressure.
"You've been tainted by western ideas during your visits to Europe," Hossam told Nashwa, as they dined with his parents. Nashwa, who'd been the president of the Women In Business Affairs Club at Cairo University, told her husband and his family of her dream of establishing such a club in Beni Suef. Nashwa looked at Hossam, astonished by his cruel and dismissive response, and she saw his parents chuckling, apparently amused by her shocked face.
"Imagine a husband who defended his wife like a real man should," Nashwa said angrily, and Hossam rolled his eyes while his parents launched into a tirade about the way a woman ought to behave. Nashwa didn't argue with them for the remainder of the meal. There was really no point in arguing with dead men and dead women. When dawn came, Nashwa left the household and headed to the City of Cairo, a bastion of progress and civilization in an otherwise rough, downright vicious landscape. Nashwa should have never left Cairo for Hossam and his clan, or the backwards realm that produced them...
When the bus arrived in the City of Cairo, Nashwa felt like jumping for joy. She made a beeline for the airport, but found an unusual concentration of policemen there. There were even some policewomen around. Nashwa knew that the Cairo police often deployed policewomen when dealing with female suspects. Fearing discovery, Nashwa changed her plans. She fled to Sudan, intent on hiding there until things died down. The disputed Egyptian/Sudan border is twelve hundred and seventy six kilometers of treacherous terrain, but for Nashwa, it beat all hell out of a jail cell...
Nashwa did not remain in the City of Khartoum once she arrived in Sudan, and instead went to the City of Kassala in the East. Khartoum is full of Sudanese Arabs, and has a sizeable population of Egyptian Arabs. Nashwa didn't want to be recognized in case the Egyptian law enforcement authorities were looking for her. In the Arab world, nothing mobilizes the authorities quite like capturing and punishing women who not only broke the law but struck a lethal blow against the patriarchy.
"This will do just fine, thank you, brother," Nashwa said to Omar Obeid, and the tall, dark-skinned, sixty-something Sudanese Muslim building manager nodded and gave her the key to the one-bedroom apartment which she rented under an alias. Nashwa had paid for the next four months in advance even though Omar only asked for two months rent. The place was furnished, and contained a bed, three couches, a kitchen table with four chairs, a fridge, a stove, and a microwave. It wasn't the Ritz but it would do just fine for a woman on the run...
Nashwa lay on the bed, and for the first time in days, she closed her eyes and allowed herself to rest. She'd made it. She escaped from Egypt after murdering her evil husband Hossam and his idiotic, cruel and controlling parents. Article two hundred and thirty of the Egyptian Penal Code provides the death penalty for murder, so Nashwa had no doubt about her fate, should she get caught. Nashwa showered, ate, and watched TV. Nashwa found out that Egyptian law enforcement was looking for her, but they thought she was still in Egypt...
For the next few days, Nashwa kept to her new apartment, and only ventured into her new neighborhood while wearing a burka. The people of Sudan, descended from Sub-Saharan Africans who mixed with the Arabs, have a unique look, but as an Arab woman, she could actually pass for one of them. Sudanese men sometimes married Arab women, the most famous example being the assassinated former President of Egypt, Anwar El-Sadat. Nashwa didn't stand out in Sudan as much as she would in Paris, France, her original destination. Thank Jannah for small blessings...
Nashwa got herself some new identification papers, and got herself a job as a saleswoman at Super Market Awali, a local shopping center. She'd arrived in Sudan with three thousand dollars U.S. which was one hundred and sixty five thousand Sudanese pounds, depending on the currency exchange rate. Nashwa adapted to life in the City of Kassala, a major urban center of eastern Sudan. For the murderess-on-the-run, life was lonely, and a lady does have her needs. Nashwa frequented Tabak Assuri, a restaurant which served the best kebabs in all of metropolitan Kassala, and met a remarkable young man there...
