Confessions of a Former Islamist

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Part 6 

Mrs. Sh. Sh. H

Though Mrs. Sh. Sh. H was a Christian, she knew little about Christianity other than the golden cross she wore around her neck. She says that while in college, she was wild and caused many problems for her family. Then she met a devout Christian man who wanted to marry her, against the advice of the clergy and against the will of his family. After their marriage, she was faithful to him for a short time. Though they had two beautiful boys, she was unhappy with her husband.

Mrs. Sh. Sh. H worked at an intermediate school where she met Khalid Abdel Rahman Mekawy. She started to fool around with Khalid.  Because he was poor, she used to take her husband’s money and give it to him. The school was far from where she lived, which made it easier for her to have this affair.

Khalid talked to me about their affair and I told him that I could garner him a reward of LE 7000 (Egyptian Pounds) or possibly as much as LE 10000 if he was able to make her convert to Islam. I arranged for their sexual encounter in an apartment and then tipped off the vice police who came to arrest them.

While in the vice police headquarters, Mrs. Sh. Sh. H was faced with two choices, either write a formal report and represent her case to the D.A. or, if she wanted to avoid the scandal, she could be released from the precinct temporarily in order to pack her clothes and then return to the precinct to be escorted by Mohamed Abdel Zaher, a lawyer, to Al-Azhar in order to finish the procedures for her conversion. She was also told to make a case against her Christian husband requesting full custody of her children, since she was now a follower of Islam. (According to Egyptian law, if one of the parents converts to Islam that parent will have full custody of the children who are under 18.)  Knowing this, her husband took the children and disappeared until a priest arranged for him to leave the country.

Mrs. Sh. Sh. H did not change her name after converting to Islam.  Khalid took his reward of LE 10000 and gave it to his impoverish family.  He lived with her and relied on donations from Muslim families that wanted to reward him for bringing victory to Islam. Yet despite these rewards, he was still poor and she lived with him in difficult conditions for two years.  Her health deteriorated because of malnutrition.  She also became melancholy because she was unable to see her children.  She attempted suicide on more than one occasion.

After I was baptized, her father got in touch with Khalid through me and paid him LE 100000 to divorce her. When her father saw her, he could not recognize her because she looked so terrible. All the legal procedures were made with the Clerical Council for her to be reinstated as a Christian.  A volunteer Christian lawyer helped her to win her case.

Though her husband did not take her back, he allows her to see her children regularly and she now lives with her mother and brother in one of the coastline cities.

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