'My trouble began when mosque goers found me in a cardboard surrounded by barking stray dogs that were ready to devour me,' Noha said.

'The people did not know what to do with the foundling and one of them decided to take me to his home,' she added.

'In the morning, the man presented me to a married cousin and asked him to raise me since his wife was not able to bear children,' Noha said, adding that the couple were very happy and agreed to raise me as their own daughter.'

'The father went to the police station and after some legal measures, he obtained a birth certificate for me. He named me Noha and gave me his name,' she said, adding that she lived a happy childhood in these two people's home.

'My foster mother was very kind to me, but my foster father treated me with some cruelty, which I could not explain,' Noha said.

'On my ninth birthday,' she said, 'my father told me that I was not his daughter and recounted the whole story about finding me near the mosque.'

'His words were like knife stabs into my chest and - as a nine year old child - I could not bear the agony when he branded me as a foundling whose parents were not known,' Noha said, adding that since that day she decided to cope with her position as a foundling and live with it.

'Years passed and at the age of 14, my foster father became very aggressive towards me especially after discovering a relationship I had with a young man living next door,' Noha said.

'My father was always telling me that I would make the same mistake my original mother had made 18 years ago and threatened to throw me into the street from which I came if I did not stop dating that boy,' she added, claiming that at that time her father was making a pass at her behind his wife's back.

'Against his wishes and beatings, I did not stop seeing or phoning Ahmed whom I had informed about my story. I loved him even more when he and his mother sympathised with me and pledged to stand by me,' she said, alleging that her foster mother had also changed her attitude and began mistreating her.

'She became very jealous of me when I became a young woman. She used to force me to wear long dresses especially when her husband was at home. She even ordered him never to enter my bedroom and to leave the house if she wanted to visit a friend or go out,' Noha claimed, adding that her foster mother used to beat her 'savagely' whenever she spotted her talking to Ahmed over the phone.

Noha said that many times her foster mother had threatened to throw her out of the house for no reason except for her relationship with Ahmed.

She also said that her foster parents denied her the right to join the university although she got a secondary school certificate with high marks.

'That is an absolute injustice to deny me the right to higher education,' Noha said.

On Tuesday morning, Noha said, her mother kicked her out of the house following a fight with her father when he broke into her bedroom on Monday evening in an attempt to rape her.

'She was out of the house on some errand and her husband arrived unexpectedly before her arrival. I was in my room and he tried to force himself on me. I screamed and neighbours broke open the apartment door to rescue me from his hands. He told the neighbours that he was beating me for something bad I had done and they bought his story and left. When his wife arrived later he told her his version of the story and she believed him. However, on the following morning I told her all about his attempt and the previous ones as well. Instead, she beat me and dragged me to the police station to tell the officers that she was no longer responsible for me and left the station,' Noha said.
'I had no place whatsoever to go to and that is why I am asking the police to find my original parents for me,' she said.

'Now, I know the deep trouble I am in and all the time I wish that those people who found me near the mosque would have left me to the dogs,' Noha said.

Egyptian Gazette - Dec. 1997