Egyptian villagers apologize as locals refused to bury coronavirus victim

CAIRO – 17 April 2020: Some dwellers of a village in the Egyptian northern governorate of Dakahlia have decided to apologize for the actions of some others who tried to prevent the burial of a coronavirus (COVID-19) victim earlier this week for fear of infection.

Security forces dispersed the protest to allow the burial of the deceased woman.

Banners have been hanged in streets of the village of Shubra Al-Bahw, blaming the incident on “few” people who suffer a “lack of awareness”. The words on the banners circulated on social media also mourned the death of Sonia Abdel Azim, a 64-year old female doctor who died of the novel virus.





The incident has shocked many people. While some tried to find excuses for the dwellers, including ignorance and fear of infection, many others fiercely attacked them.

On the same day, April 11th, Egypt’s top prosecutor ordered an investigation into the incident. Some 23 suspects were detained the following day as per the prosecutor’s orders.

State authorities also condemned the incident and have worked to ensure similar incidents will not take place.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli offered his condolences to the family of the doctor. He had a phone call with the family of doctor Sonia to offer his condolences and apologize on behalf of all Egyptians after the outrageous action.

Madbouli promised Abdel Azim’s family that those who refused the burial of the doctor will be accountable for their actions.

Religion
In a bid to end the controversy, Grand Mufti of Egypt Shawqi Allam issued a fatwa (Islamic decision) prohibiting this act.

“It is impermissible for anyone to deprive any human of this divine right of burial,” the Fatwa says, adding that bullying against the COVID-19 patients is religiously forbidden.

The Fatwa also prohibited the gatherings that could be staged by the relatives of the deceased people, Allam said.

“The demagogic method of objection to the burial of coronavirus martyrs is religiously rejected,” Allam said, adding that those who died from the coronavirus are considered “martyrs.” He called for accelerating the burial of the victims because it is their right.

Also, Ahmed al-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Egypt’s top religious authority, denounced the incident as “a far cry from ethics, humanity, and religion.”

“It is dangerous that humanity could lose and selfishness prevails,” he added in a post on his official Facebook page, calling for honoring the dead by burying them in a timely manner.

Health condition
According to the state-owned newspaper al-Akhbar, the doctor’s son said to the prosecutor during the investigations that his mother was suffering of diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney failure, and a blood clot in one of her toes; accordingly, she used to visit a private clinic regularly in February and March. Then she needed to be completely hospitalized.

The female doctor began to show symptoms of COVID-19, turned out to be positive when tested and was quarantined in a hospital in Ismailia governorate until her death.

“On the day following my mother’s death, and after taking all the necessary and precautionary measures, we went to the cemetery with an ambulance and a specialized team from the hospital to bury her but we were surprised with the people gathering and protesting ,” the doctor’s son said in his testimonial.

He added that the people surrounded them and the ambulance, hit on it and even started to throw stones at them. “They set fire to tires and wood to cut our road and damaged the ambulance, we had to go back and wait for the police backup forces to bury my mother,” the son added.