The family of one of the journalists killed in the violence in Egypt released the text of her last conversation with her mother before she was shot on Wednesday while the video footage taken from the facebook Habiba Ahmed Abd Elaziz was 26. She was a reporter for XPress, a newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates. Gulf News, which published XPress, wrote about Elaziz after her death. It said she had been killed by sniper fire:
She joined Gulf News on September 11, 2011, interning as a community journalist for the Readers Desk. Habiba subsequently joined XPRESS on April 1, 2012 after earning her Journalism degree from the American University of Sharjah (AUS). She covered the police and court beats for XPRESS.
Later, The National, an English-language newspaper based in Abu Dhabi, publishedheartbreaking excerpts of Elaziz’s last SMS conversation with her mother.
An section of the exchange is below:
Habiba: I took three kinds of medication. It’s very cold here and I’m shivering. The crowds are massive and on high alert. Pray for us, mother. Mother: God, keep us steadfast and give us power. God, grant us power over their necks I entrust you to God the Almighty Habiba: I’m heading to the platform in a little while. There are tanks there.Mother:
God grant us steadfastness
God grant us victory
This is what I wrote on my page:
God, I entrust to you all my brothers and sisters, sons and daughters in Rabeaa and Al Nahda and all those who are protesting across Egypt. God I entrust to you with my husband Ahmed and my daughter Habiba. May we not be bereaved over any of them. God empower them and support them and keep them steadfast at the moment of encounter today.12:46pm
Mother:
Habiba, please reassure me. I’ve called thousands of times. Please, my darling, I’m worried sick. Tell me how you are.
