Egypt’s First Ship Captain Marwa Elselehdar Says “Blamed For Blocking the Suez Canal” | Hindustan Times

Egypt’s first ship captain, Marwa Elselehdar, was at the center of a fake news campaign that blamed her for stopping one of the world’s most strategic shipping routes, the Suez Canal, according to a BBC report. But when reports emerged that the container ship Ever Given passed through the Suez Canal, Elselehdar, 29, was on duty hundreds of miles away in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.

“I was surprised,” he said, according to the report. “I felt that it could be a target maybe because I am a successful woman in this field or because I am Egyptian, but I am not sure,” she added.

Read also | Trapped in Suez: thousands of animals huddled in ship hulls

Elselehdar is among 2 percent of the world’s navies, according to the report. “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, you don’t need to seek everyone’s approval,” she said. saying.

Screenshots of a fake news headline and a doctored image taken from a news story published on March 22, describing Elselehdar, circulated on social media, paving the way for rumors that she was involved in the incident of Suez.

“This fake article was in English, so it spread to other countries. I tried very hard to deny what was in the article because it was affecting my reputation and all the efforts I made to be where I am now,” he said.

Traffic congestion affecting trade around the world was caused by the skyscraper-sized container ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal. More than 300 ships were waiting to pass the Suez Canal, many of them with animals as cargo, as rescue efforts were underway for nearly a week. The ship was released on March 29 and world trade resumed its course after traffic was largely cleared on April 3.