Muslim Brotherhood politician, Dr Mohamed El-Beltagi’s letter to his daughter Asmaa el-Beltagi who was killed by Egyptian security forces in Rabaa al-Adawiya last year.
My daughter (my teacher, my role model and the comfort of my life); it has been a year since your pure soul ascended in the company of a constellation of martyrs who ascended on that memorable day which has gone down in history as had the day of Al-Ukhdud (the ditch) and the day of great Karbalaa. Chaste souls ascended to heaven as a price for sticking to the truth and holding fast to it and for rising above all forms of oppression, humiliation, injustice and tyranny and despising oppression and the oppressors.
My beloved daughter! Several days ago, the general secondary school results were announced as college places were allocated. I was happy for your colleagues (whom you always surpassed and succeeded) and I wished I could take your place whilst congratulating them. Yet, by Allah, I was more delighted for what has been bestowed upon you by the grace of Allah who chose you to be, God-willing, a “few among others” who are honoured by Allah to be amongst the highest ranking, joining “those whom Allah bestows his grace of the prophets, the saints, the martyrs and the righteous”, God-willing.
My beloved daughter! Only Allah knows how much I miss your beautiful smiling face, your graceful presence and your wise mind. Yet, you continue to live in our midst as if you have never departed us. Once your mother visited me in my prison cell and swore that Asmaa was still living amongst us, I replied in agreement with her yes, “they are alive with their Lord, well provided for”. She turned and said to me, “She truly lives in our midst in speech and indeed, in reality, and she does partake in our struggles and in our lives”. She went on to tell me stories of young men and women who tell her that when they face problems or go through crises they see Asmaa in their dreams reassuring them, giving them good news, advising them and guiding them to do what is good until they are free from their crises. I said to myself, hurray my darling, how pleasant have you been in life as well as in martyrdom.
My daughter and my teacher! Allah willed that your murder, in particular, at the hands of an army sniper on that memorable day should become a sign and a proof of the righteousness and justness of the cause which you defended and were killed for. Namely the absolute opposition to the return of military rule in the aftermath of the January revolution which erupted in order to put an end to the military’s destruction of the country, over 60 years of oppression, corruption, decline and subordination. Your murder was evidence that those who took to the streets to protest against the military coup did not do so for the sake of a group or an individual. You were the last person who would have ever fallen into partisanship or bias in favour of a certain individual or a certain party. Frequently, you adopted positions that were different to those of the Brotherhood, especially those positions which you considered to be unjustifiably concessionary towards the army, especially when it came to seeking justice for the revolution’s martyrs.
Your murder, as an unarmed girl who never carried a weapon not even a stone, also provided decisive proof that they targeted everyone who said no to the coup and who stood up against oppression and darkness. Your murder, was an act of treachery and treason so cowardly carried out from the military helicopter that hovered over your head or by army snipers who spread all over the square. This provided proof of the justness, correctness and righteousness of those who opposed this military tyranny that so arrogantly and boastfully abuses its military might, which was paid for by the people who had to spare that from their own strength and livelihood with the aim of confronting the Zionists but not for the sake of having their own innocent children murdered. The military, instead, used this military might to kill the people, and impose their authority and corruption.
My daughter, my teacher and the apple of my eye! Despite all that we have been subjected to; the murder of our loved ones, the fabrication of charges and court cases against us and our families, our dispossession, our dismissal from our academic jobs, the issuing of death and life sentences by a crooked judiciary, and the imprisoning of so many of our children after false evidence against them, by Allah we have not forgotten you, not for a second, nor have we forgotten any of your fellow martyred brothers and sisters. We have not forgotten for a moment what you made sacrifices for. By Allah, we have not even felt sorrow for what has befallen us, nor have we been weakened or defeated. Here we are proceeding along your path and nothing will please us but one of two noble ends [victory or martyrdom]. By Allah, the days of the past year and what the coup perpetrators have committed (treachery, murder, repression, theft and arson; what they have done to terrorise people into silence and fear; what tricks, lies, misguidance and treason they have resorted to and the starvation and evil they have spread across the country) will only enhance our conviction that we are on the side of truth and that they are on the side of falsehood, and that victory is imminent, no doubt.
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My daughter, my teacher and the apple of my eye! A year has passed since you departed. Life since you is pointless. We are no longer frightened of jail or jailers nor are we fearful of being murdered or executed. You have taught us with your chaste blood and pure faithful souls what sacrifice for the sake of Allah should be, upholding the values of truth, justice and freedom.
Finally, we pray regularly for you and your fellow martyred brothers and sisters asking Allah to elevate your rank in heaven and to entitle you to be amongst those close to Allah. We ask Him to provide us with patience and steadfastness until we join you among the righteous in the company of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and his companions who will be happy to see us join them having learned that they were succeeded by men and women who fulfilled the covenant they made with the Almighty Allah and never wavered.
Dr Beltagi is a Muslim Brotherhood politician and the general secretary of the Freedom and Justice Party.
After the military coup which overthrew Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, prosecutors ordered Dr Beltagi’s arrest on 10th July 2013.
On 14th July 2013 the Egyptian military-appointed prosecutor, General Hisham Barakat ordered Dr Beltagi’s assets to be frozen.
Dr Beltagi’s 17-year-old daughter, Asmaa el-Beltagi was killed when Egyptian security forces stormed two pro Morsi camps in Cairo. She was shot in the back and chest.
Beltagi was arrested on 29th August 2013 by security forces in Giza.
