Attacks on journalists in Egypt

Caught in the crossfire

Once again, a young woman journalist has been killed in Cairo, and once again, no one is being held responsible or brought to justice. Karim El-Gawhary reports from Cairo on the case of the murdered journalist Mayada Ashraf

A young, self-confident woman wearing a red headscarf and a friendly smile looks down from the wall of the Egyptian Press Syndicate in Cairo. Anyone who is immortalised in a portrait on the exterior wall of the syndicate building is no longer among the living. This is the wall of martyrs – those who have died in Egypt while in the service of the pen or camera. While the painter puts the finishing touches to the portrait, his colleagues are already dismantling the scaffolding.

Below, on the steps of the entrance, a few dozen journalists have assembled for a silent protest. Their mouths are taped shut and they are holding photos of Mayada Ashraf, the murdered journalist. The images of the 22-year-old reporter for the Egyptian daily paper "Al-Destour", wearing a headscarf, with red-pursed lips and heavy makeup, reflect the contradictions in the lives of young Egyptians: full of hope and with their whole lives in front of them, they are trying to find their place in Egypt's conservative and politically polarised society.