Dina el-Gowhary, a 15-year-old Egyptian Muslim-born girl, who converted to Christianity, was subjected to an acid attack. This is the latest in a string of failed attempts by Muslim fanatics to harm her and her father, 57-year-old Peter Athanasius (Maher el-Gowhary), who converted to Christianity 35 years ago.
Several Fatwa's were issued calling for the "spilling of his blood", which makes their lives in constant danger in the face of the reactionaries and advocates for the enforcement of Islamic apostasy laws, which call for the death for leaving Islam.
Three weeks ago, when she ventured out from their hiding place in Alexandria with her father to get some bottled water, acid was thrown upon her, which set her jacket on fire.
"My father quickly took my jacket off before the fire reached my arms. Ever since then I am terrorized to go out to the street, with or without my father," said Dina.
In an interview with Freecopts advocacy, Dina pleaded Egyptian President Mubarak to save her and her father, and allow them to leave Egypt.
She had previously written to President Obama, who got her message and responded to it. It was reported that the el-Gowharys met with the US Committee on International Religious Freedom on their last visit to Egypt in January 2010, and that they have asked for asylum in the United States.
Dina wonders whether she will get the same attention from President Mubarak as she did from President Obama.
"Will he listen and lend us a helping hand, if, as they claim, he truly does not differentiate between Muslim and Christian citizens?" She asked the Egyptian President, who newly became grandfather to a girl.
"Do you accept that your granddaughter would live under the same conditions like mine? I have no home, I am always afraid when I go to church or even go out in the street, I have no friends and no education," she added.
In her letter to President Mubarak, Dina expressed her deep distress at the mistreatment and continuous troubles she faces everywhere she goes, including being beaten and humiliated. She told of how persecution by teachers and fellow students after she embraced Christianity, forcing her to abandon school.
"I was threatened many times before. Once coming back from school, a bearded young man stepped out of a car, lifted me through my clothes from the ground and warned me that if my father and myself do not go back to Islam, both of us will be killed," she wrote to Obama.
Dina, now living with her Christian father for the last two years, has to move with him from one place to another in search of personal safety for both, in the face of the many threats they experienced since her father declared his conversion to Christianity and his desire to his change religious designation in official documents.
In June 2009 a Court refused his plea to change his religious designation on his ID to reflect his Christian religion and his Christian name, Peter Athanasius. The Court ruling said that the religious conversion of a Muslim is against Islamic Sharia law and poses a threat to the "Public Order" in Egypt. He has appealed the ruling.
In the Freecopts interview, Dina hoped that President Mubarak will help them leave Egypt in order for them to live a normal life and continue her education.
The el-Gowhary family was barred from leaving Egypt on September 17, 2009 without any legal reason. They were told, however, that the order came from a higher authority, without telling which authority exactly is barring him.
He explained, in an interview with Freecopts this week, the extremely difficult circumstances they are living under, being hunted the whole time and with many attempts on their lives.
"It is only due to the Grace and Protection of God, that we are still alive until today," he added.
"Why did they confiscate our passports? What have we done wrong?" lamented Dina, except embracing Christian, which they would not abandon, no matter what.
