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KAIRO, KOMPAS.com- Last month, Marwa Elselehdar (29), captain of the first female boat in Egypt, noticed something strange.
News broke that the giant container ship, Ever Given, ran aground in the Suez Canal, stopping one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
Also read: Suez Canal without traffic, the last boat that was stopped has finished
But when she checked her phone, rumors circulated online that she was the culprit.
“I was surprised,” said Marwa, the captain of Egypt’s first female ship.
When the Suez Canal was blocked, Elselehdar was serving as the second most responsible person in command of the ship Aida IV, hundreds of miles away in Alexandria.
The ship, which belongs to Egypt’s maritime security authority, is tasked with supplying a lighthouse in the Red Sea.
Read also: [Cerita Dunia] History of the Statue of Liberty, originally installed on the Suez Canal
The ship is also used to train cadets at the Arab Academy of Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT), a regional university run by the Arab League.
The rumors about Marwa Elselehdar’s role in Ever Given were largely fueled by screenshots of fake news apparently posted by Arab News, who said he was involved in the Suez incident.
The view of the edited photo seems to come from a news item Arab news, which launched on March 22 and features Marwa’s success as the captain of Egypt’s first female ship. The photo has been shared dozens of times on Twitter and Facebook.
Several Twitter accounts in his name also spread false claims that he was involved in the Ever Given incident.
Also read: The impact of the traffic jams in the Suez Canal, Egypt calls for compensation of 14.5 billion IDR
Marwa Elselehdar said BBC who does not know who was the first to spread the story or why he did it.
“I feel like it could be a target, maybe because I’m a successful woman in this field or because I’m Egyptian, but I’m not sure,” she said.
This isn’t the first time you’ve faced challenges in a historically male-dominated industry. Currently, women represent only 2 percent of the marine world, according to the International Maritime Organization.
Marwa said she had always loved the sea and was inspired to join the merchant fleet after her brother enrolled in AASTMT.
Although the academy was only accepting men at the time, it still came forward and was allowed to join after a legal review by then-President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak.
Also read: 10 important world-famous waterways, from the Suez Canal to the Panama Canal
During the study, Elselehdar said that she faced sexism very often.
“On the ship, they were all older men with a different mindset, so it was difficult to find like-minded people to communicate with,” he said.
“It is very difficult to go through everything alone and be able to handle it without affecting my sanity,” Elselehdar continued.
“Our society still cannot accept the idea that women can work at sea, away from their families, for a long time,” she added.
“But when you do what you love, you don’t have to ask for everyone’s approval,” Elselehdar concluded.
Also read: The cause of the Ever Given boat jam in the Suez Canal begins to be investigated
