Egypt’s first female ship’s captain says she was subject to a fake news campaign blaming her for grounding the Ever Given container ship in the Suez Canal, despite working on a ship that was hundreds of kilometres away at the time.
Marwa Elselehdar was working as a first mate on the
Aida IV in Alexandria when the 200,000-tonne
Ever Given got stuck, blocking one of the world’s busiest shipping routes. The 29-year-old is a figure celebrated by feminists in Egypt. In 2015 she became both the youngest and the first female Egyptian captain to navigate the newly expanded Suez Canal.