CAIRO: The hometown of a pregnant Egyptian woman stabbed to death in a German courtroom is to honor the Islamophobia victim with a street in her name, Egypt’s official MENA news agency reported on Wednesday.
Alexandria governor Adel Labib “agreed to give the name of martyr Marwa Al-Sherbini to a street in the northern Egyptian Mediterranean city, MENA quoted Labib as saying during a commemoration ceremony.
Al-Sherbini, 31, died in a courtroom in the east German city of Dresden after being stabbed at least 18 times in front of her three-year-old son and her husband, allegedly by a Russian-born German man identified only as Alex W.
Dresden is also mulling ways to honor her after the killing sparked anger in the Muslim world, including possibly also naming a street after her.
The killing fuelled anti-German sentiment in some Muslim countries, notably Iran and Egypt, where she became known as the “veil martyr as she was wearing a headscarf when she was attacked for apparently racist motives.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has blamed the German government for the killing, while demonstrations were staged outside the German embassies in Tehran and Cairo.
After an initially slow response to the killing, the German government has moved to deflect criticism, with Chancellor Angela Merkel expressing her condolences to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. – AFP
