• January 17, 2007
  • 8 minutes read

Interviews with Wives of Daqahliya Detainees

Wife of Eng. Mohamed Zakariya: I consider my husband’s detention as a time to rest, relax and be nearer to Allah; his detention is a prize from Allah the Exalted the Majestic; we are fully steadfast and we will be rewarded for this, God willing.
 
Wife of Dr. Hamed Mansour: “After my husband is released, we will stick more to our thought; there will be no change in our method in life; this is simply because we did nothing wrong to hold ourselves accountable for”.
 
 




 
I had a strange feeling while heading for houses of the wives of the detained Muslim Brotherhood leaders from Dakahliya- they were detained in the latest crackdown against MB leaders and members nationwide; I didn’t know how to begin an interview with wives whose husbands were detained during the feast, a time of happiness and joy.
 
 
This feeling changed quickly when I met the wife of Eng. Mohamed Zakariya- the head of the auto department in Al-Huda Wal-Nour schools; she is 42 years old mother of two: Basel, a primary school fourth grader and Roanne, a primary school sixth grader.
 
At the beginning of the interview, she told me how her husband was detained on the fourth day of Al-Adha Feast :
 
“We were enjoying the happiness of the feast which was an exhausting day for Eng. Mohamed as he slept early that night after distributing sacrifice meat among poor and relatives; at about 1.30 AM, the door bell rang; I felt that this was the state security police; Mohamed got up and opened the door for them; he asked them to perform ablution; then he took the Quran and some clothes, and went with them; I didn’t know where they went until a Muslim Brotherhood member informed me that my husband is detained in Mansoura police station 1.
 
Asked about what the police took else, and whether they ransacked the house, she said that they didn’t take anything from the house although they accused him of having a book about Palestine and feast greeting leaflets, things we didn’t have in our house.
 
 At the end of our interview with her, she said:

 I want to ask those who give a foul mouth rant about freedom, human and child rights to pay attention to our rights, especially that these incidents took place amid the joy of the feast; also, my husband is detained pending investigation, why have they detained him among criminals?!!; what will my son think when he grows up while he sees his father arrested without committing any offence?!!; they are violating the sanctity of houses.
 
His mother always prays to Allah to bring him back, and I consider his detention as a time to rest, relax and be nearer to Allah, his detention is a prize from Allah the Exalted the Majestic; we are fully steadfast and we will be rewarded for this, God willing.
 
After this astonishing tranquility that I found in the family of Eng. Mohamed Zakariya, my feelings changed and I felt that this faithful family is so patient.
 
After that, I had an interview with the wife of Dr. Mohamed Abdul Rahman, a cardiologist in the Shirbin public hospital; she is a mother of three children: Yasser, a secondary second grader, Hala, a primary sixth grader and Mariam, a primary fourth grader.
 
She spoke with me with the same steadfastness and tranquility; she said that Dr. Mohamed was previously detained three times: on May, 15, 2004, on May, 14, 2005 and in December 2005.

When asked about how he was detained, she said that at 1.30 AM, the State Security Police forces were knocking at the door of our house, and they stormed into the house immediately after we opened the door; Dr. Mohamed got up and started to pack his clothes and went to perform ablution. Meanwhile, the state security officer delivered a long speech to us about the disadvantages of the Muslim Brotherhood and that this group seeks only to rule.
 
The state security added that:” Every one should raise his children and avoid troubles” and said to my son in a threatening tone:” Your father is the one to blame for my coming here, keep away from troubles along with your brothers” and he insulted martyr Imam Hassan Al Banna and said:” May Allah avenge from him, he is to blame for my coming here”.
 
 
Then, he took Dr. Mohamed, promising us that he will be back in the morning; this was the first time in which they did not ransack the house and it was also the first time in which they deliver speeches and talk like this inside our house, unlike the violence they did in the previous times, leading to a fracture in my husband’s foot; they said in the detention report this time that they arrested him in the street.
 
 Asked about how life is going on after arresting Dr. Mohamed, she said that: thanks god we are patient, but they violated the sanctity of the house, and there is a feeling of insecurity; we searched for our family caregiver tiresomely in police stations till we were informed that he is detained in Mansoura police station 1; they have arrested him three times each of which has a new charge: a time on charge of participating in reform demonstrations, and another on charge of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood group; every time takes place during the children’s exams, very painful experiences for them.
 
 She then exclaimed:” how come that the Muslim Brotherhood group has 88 MPs in the People’s Assembly and they claim that it is an outlawed group?!!”.
 
 
As for Dr. Hamed Mansour, a specialist of Dermal Diseases in Mansoura hospitals, he is 52 years old and was previously arrested two times: in 1993 for a month and in Salsabeal case for 6 months.
 
His wife said that the sate security officers were polite this time, unlike previous times, and they didn’t wreak any havoc in the house as they did before; they stormed into the house at 1.30 AM on the fourth day of Al-Adha Feast.
 
However, his wife was much more affected by the prison visit and treatment than the detention; she said that:“ I wasn’t allowed to visit my husband except three days ago, after tiring measures of police stations and after facing humiliation from every one meeting me, starting from policemen to top officers.”
 
She added that:” They were lying to me; but there were also some who supported us and facilitated the visit measures; I thank them for their good treatment; I saw criminals meeting their families while we- families of political detainees- were obliged to see our husbands from behind fences; I demand officials to improve the conditions of the visits to raise the morales of the relatives and the detainees.
 
 
She has confirmed that what happened is a reward from Allah; and that only Allah can save them from such an affliction, confirming that even after her husband is released, there will be no change in their ideology or way of their life, “this is simply because we did nothing wrong to hold ourselves accountable, so we won’t change the course of our life” she said.
 
At the end of the interview, she sent a call to all human and child rights agencies, saying:” I appeal to all human and child rights agencies to press fro measures to incriminate such actions committed against political detainees; this is because what the police is doing is called kidnapping; how shall I raise my children while they have seen their father kidnapped from among them; these scenes create, inside them, motives for violence and rage against the regime.
 
 “I want to raise a good citizen and I want a law to protect our violated rights which are guaranteed by the constitution and law”, She added.