The Story of Nora and the National Squad

كتبهاعلاء الأسوانى ، في 17 نوفمبر 2009 الساعة: 19:35 م

The Story of Nora and the National Squad

Alaa Al-Aswany

November 17, 2009

This week I wanted to write about an Egyptian woman by the name of Nora Hashem Mohamed but the great victory of our national soccer squad over Algeria cannot be ignored, so I decided to write about the two subjects together.

There’s nothing special about Nora Hashem Mohamed. She’s like millions of other Egyptian women – brown-skinned, moderately attractive and poor. She’s married to a simple laborer by the name of Hani Zakaria Mustafa, with whom she has two boys and with whom she has fought a daily battle to make a living and bring up the two children. One day Nora suddenly felt ill.

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The match between our national team and Algeria was a battle of destiny during which the Egyptians showed their mettle, forgot their differences and stood united behind the national team. When the Algerian media took part in some vulgar ridicule of our national team, Egyptian media responded with a torrent of stinging insults towards the Algerians, and when the Algerian singer Warda announced she would support the Algerian team many Egyptians were angry and asked: “How dare Warda support the Algerian team when she’s been living in Egypt and enjoying its bounty for decades?” Some Internet bloggers demanded that Warda be barred from Egypt to punish her for her failure to support our national team.

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At first Nora attributed her exhaustion to lack of sleep and too much housework and she kept it a secret from her husband Hani so as not to add to his burdens. But her illness worsened until she took to her bed. At that stage Hani insisted on taking her a private clinic and paid a doctor to examine her. The doctor advised that she be taken to hospital immediately.

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President Mubarak enthusiastically attended one of the national team’s training sessions and spent time with the players to encourage them in the match. The truth is that President Mubarak is well-known for his patronage of sportsmen. One might remember that when 1,400 Egyptians died in the famous ferry accident, the president’s grief for the victims did not prevent him from attending another training session in preparation for another battle of destiny, in that case the final of the Africa Cup of Nations.

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When Hani Zakaria and his wife Nora reached Embaba chest hospital it was two o’clock in the morning. The doctor quickly examined Nora, said her condition was normal and then left. Hani tried to catch him to discuss the case further but was not allowed to meet the doctor. Hani went back to the receptionist and begged him to help find treatment for his wife. The receptionist then told him straight that if he wanted his wife to be treated he must pay 2,000 pounds immediately.

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During the match with Algeria, despite deliberate rough play on the part of the Algerians, our players displayed the highest level of self-control, and the deep piety of Egyptians was evident during and before the match. Millions of Egyptians prayed to God to have the Egyptian team score at least two goals and the singer Ehad Tawfik appeared on television asking all the spectators to pray for the team and saying that in Egypt there were many righteous men whose prayers God would definitely answer.

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Hani was stunned when he heard the amount of money required of him, and asked the receptionist in a soft voice whether the Embaba Chest Hospital was still a government hospital. The receptionist told him it was still a government hospital but he must still pay 2,000 pounds. Hani said he was poor and didn’t have that amount of money. The receptionist didn’t answer and proceeded to read some papers lying in front of him. Hani began to beg the receptionist to let his wife be treated.

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On the morning of the day of the match, the well-known sports commentator Yasser Ayoub said on television that if the Egyptian team beat Algeria and qualified for the World Cup finals then every player on the team would receive a reward of six million pounds from the state and from the football federation. When the presenter showed signs of surprise at the amount, another sports commentator said the players on the national team would deserve more than that because they make extraordinary efforts in order to bring joy to the hearts of Egyptians.

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When Hani despaired of persuading the receptionist at the Embaba Chest Hospital , he took his wife, who was now staggering from exhaustion and fever, and went with her to the Omrania Chest Hospital, where a doctor examined her and said he suspected she had swine flu. He added that he couldn’t treat her in the hospital because it was not equipped to deal with such cases, and he advised Hani to take his wife to the Umm al-Masriyeen Hospital, which did have the right facilities.

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President Mubarak isn’t the only sports enthusiast. His sons Gamal and Alaa share his passion and the two of them made sure they went to the stadium to support the national team. Most of the ministers and senior officials tagged along too, including the health minister, who sat right next to Gamal Mubarak. We saw how happy they all were when Amr Zaki scored the first goal against Algeria.

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Hani thanked the doctor , took his wife Nora and hurried to the Umm al-Masriyeen Hospital, where he begged the officials to save his wife, who had started to spit blood, but the doctor there assured him that his wife’s condition was normal and did not require hospitalization. He advised Hani to take her back to the Omrania Chest Hospital because it was the hospital specializing in such cases.

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After the first goal, in spite of great efforts and fighting spirit, our players were unable to score again for 90 full minutes, and the faces of the senior officials sitting in their box showed signs of exasperation. Alaa Mubarak could not control himself and even waved his hand in remonstration when our team missed a number of clear opportunities to score.

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Hani retraced his steps, almost carrying his wife Nora, to the Omrania Chest Hospital and for the first time raised his voice in anger at the doctor: “Why did you send me to the Umm al-Masriyeen Hospital when this is where she should be treated?” he asked. The doctor said that his diagnosis was correct and that the people at the Umm al-Masriyeen Hospital are known for avoiding treating patients. He asked Hani for an official report from the Umm al-Masriyeen Hospital certifying that Nora’s condition was normal and not serious. At that point Hani apologized to the doctor for his sharp words, took his wife back to Umm al-Masriyeen and asked them for a document on his wife’s condition. In fact this time they treated him kindly and said they would do the necessary tests for his wife Nora but he would have to come back at eight o’clock in the morning because the person responsible for testing was not present (it turned out later that in fact she was present but was overworked and had asked her colleagues to turn Nora away by whatever means possible).

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The match was about to end and into extra time when Emad Moteab scored the second goal for Egypt and all of Egypt danced for joy. Dr Hatem el Gabaly, the minister of health, forgetting the prestige of his office and the fact that he was live on camera, leapt from his seat and embraced Gamal Mubarak to congratulate him on the great victory.

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Hani took his wife back to the Omrania Chest Hospital to leave her there till the morning, when he would come back and take her to do the tests at Umm al-Masriyeen. Nora’s condition had deteriorated so much that they put her on an artificial respirator, and soon she drew her last breath, before she was able to have the tests done to diagnose her condition. Nora Hashem Mohamed died before she reached the age of 25, leaving a husband and two young boys. Perhaps we are the only country where people die this way, but the tragedy of Nora Hashem Mohamed should not mar the serenity of our joy at victory over Algeria. God answered our prayers and made sure we scored two clean goals. We made the Algerians taste defeat and we will crush them in the next match. Congratulations to Egypt for reaching the World Cup and may God have mercy on the soul of Nora Hashem Mohamed.

Democracy is the solution.

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