The Mayor of Dresden, Dirk Hilbert, has announced that a major park in the German city is being renamed in memory of an Egyptian woman killed by a racist in 2009. Marwa El-Sherbini was three months pregnant when she was stabbed to death in a Dresden courtroom in front of her husband and child.
The decision to rename the park in front of the Dresden regional court coincided with the start of International Week against Racism. It is hope that the move will shed more light on hate crimes and racism, and the damage they cause in society at a time when right-wing extremism is increasing.
Sherbini was giving her testimony in a lawsuit that she had filed against her killer, who had branded her with such terms as “Islamic extremist” and “terrorist”, when she was killed. She worked at the Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital in Dresden and was studying to be accredited to practice pharmacy in Germany at the time of her murder, which shocked Europe. The Russian-German killer was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Egypt’s Minister of Emigration and Expatriates’ Affairs, Nabila Makram, welcomed the decision by the city of Dresden to rename the park after Sherbini. Love and tolerance, she said, are the only way for security and safety to prevail everywhere. Makram added that Egyptians living abroad integrate well and generally make positive contributions to their local communities.
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