Who is Marwa Elselehdar? 10 Things To Know About Egypt's First Female Ship Captain

When the huge container ship, Ever Given became wedged across the Suez Canal and brought the shipping route to a halt, one woman became the centre of news flow. Egypt's first female ship captain, Marwa Elselehdar went viral on the internet. Screenshots of a fake news headline spurred the rumours of Elselehdar's involvement in the Suez incident. This shocked her and she has no idea regarding who spread the news at the first place.

Read a detailed report on the incident here.

But who is Marwa Elselehdar? Here are 10 things we know about Egypt's first female ship captain

1. In 2013, Marwa Elselehdar graduated from the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport. and became the first woman graduate of the department. As of April 2021, she holds the position of first mate on the Aida IV. Elselehdar also holds a Masters in Business Administration degree from Cardiff Metropolitan University.
2. The Department of Maritime Transport allowed only men when she decided to apply for it. She was allowed to join after a legal review by Hosni Mubarak. Thus, Elselehdar became the only female among 1200 students. Throughout her studies, she faced sexism but completed her graduation successfully and eventually, rose to the rank of First Mate.
3. In 2015, Marwa Elselehdar became Egypt's first female ship captain when she captained the MV Aida IV through the expanded Suez Canal. Besides being the first woman captain from Egypt to do so, she was also the youngest one.
4. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi honoured her in 2017 during Women's Day celebration in 2017. Recently, the member of the Senate Engineer Ihab Zakaria honoured her and she thanked him for his hospitality and treatment through an Instagram post.
5. When the incident of the Suez Canal getting blocked by the Ever Given took place and rumours of Elselehdar being responsible for the same started getting viral, she was working as first mate in command of the Aida IV, far away from Alexandria.
6. Whereas, several Twitter accounts under Elselehdar's name have also spread false claims of her being involved in the Ever Given incident, there were also a bunch of people who supported her and she desires to focus only on the positivity and wipe out everything negative that is coming her way.
7. Elselehadar took to her Instagram handle to thank BBC news for supporting her and bringing her story in front of the public eyes. She hopes to emerge as a source of inspiration and an example of an Arab woman who is able to assume responsibility in leadership roles.
8. As the rumours emerged, she feared that it would affect her career, mainly because the fake article was in English and spread to a large number of countries. She tried to negate whatever was there in the article but it was affecting her reputation and the efforts that she had put in to get where she is now. However, she feels encouraged by all the love and support she has been receiving and has decided to focus on it. This has also helped her turn her anger into gratefulness.
9. In a recent Instagram post, Elselehadar said that she was grateful for all the support and love she has received from the key industry leaders. She calls them her 'masters and role models'. Egypt's first female ship captain says that their opinion gives her a push forward.
10. Marwa Elselehdar wants every female who aspire to be in the maritime field to fight to fight for what they love and not let any negativity affect them.