Seventeen-year-old
Asma el-Beltagi should have had the brightest of futures. She was top of her
class in school, had a reputation as a gentle and intelligent young woman, and
was loved as the daughter of one of Egypt
The daily Telegraph 15 Aug 2013
All of
this must have been running through the mind of her father, Mohammed
al-Beltagi, the secretary general of the country's ousted Muslim Brotherhood
party, as he learned the news of his daughter's death on Wednesday.
Standing
in the makeshift field hospital, his protest camp of Rabaa al-Adawiya burning
around him, he had stared down, frozen, his eyes brimming with tears, at the
lifeless body of his daughter, one eyewitness recalled.
Asma
el-Beltagi was one of at least 525 people who were killed on Wednesday when Egyptian security forces stormed two Muslim
Brotherhood protest camps that,
for the past six weeks, had been calling for a reversal of the military coup
that ousted Mohammed Morsi and Mr Beltagi, among others, from power.
Her
death certificate, seen by The
Telegraph, said that Asma had been shot in the chest, that her skull was
crushed and her left leg broken.
Speaking
for the first time, her brother Anas el-Beltagi, described how she had been on
her to way to help at a field hospital when she was caught up in the violence.
"She
was shot on her way there," he said. "I was with her just after. We
took her to hospital. She needed a blood transfer, but we couldn't operate. She
died at 1pm."
Anas and another brother Malik el-Beltagi said they had been tasked with
organising her funeral as their father Mohammed has been forced to go into
hiding.
In the space of a few short weeks, the leaders of Egypt
It is unclear whether Mohammed Beltagi will risk attending his
daughter's funeral. One of his brothers, Asma's uncle, said Mr Beltagi had gone
into hiding and that he had been unable to reach him.
Other relatives gathered on Thursday outside Al-Hussein morgue, where
her body was being kept, to mourn her death.
"She was the best in school. She was calm, and had a good manner
and a kind heart," said Hoda Mohammed, one of Asma's aunts. "She
always participated in Muslim Brotherhood activities. Her father was her role
model."
Her relatives said Asma completed the task of learning to recite the
entire Koran, word for word, a month ago. She was popular in school, and had a
good sense of humour.
As a young, modern woman, she also had many interests. Her Facebook page
showed The Pianist as one of her favorite films and Woody Allen as a favourite
actor.
When her father was ousted from power in June Asma had participated
enthusiastically in the opposition sit-ins. She would stay overnight regularly,
sleeping in makeshift tents alongside other women protestors.
On the night of the attack protest leaders started calling for
demonstrators to come to the exposed main street and show their defiance
against the security forces, said Hoda, who was with Asma at the time.
"We started chanting and praying to God because we felt we were
going to be martyrs," said Hoda.
Minutes later she lost Asma in a volley of teargas.
"I found her later bleeding on the ground," she said.
"Every minute someone died around us. The floors of the hospital were
covered in the dead and the wounded. We couldn't find a space for her.
"Then the army started shooting teargas into the hospital and we
had to flee.
"After an officer stood in front of the hospital door gripping his
gun, and allowed us back, only briefly enough to take our corpses." As
Hoda spoke, another aunty of Asma broke down into tears. Her whole body shook
as she sobbed in realization of everything that her family and Mohammed Beltagi
had lost: first the country, and now their most precious relative. "She
was an angel," she whispered through the tears.
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