Africa

(Photo: Telegraph)

Mariam Malak scored a grade of 0 in her final examinations even though she had been the best in her class for years. She believes that she was cheated and is now publicly protesting pervasive corruption in Egypt.

Mariam Malak was about to begin explaining how she got the nickname “zero schoolgirl” when the TV presenter asked the student about the cannula in her hand. The 19-year-old could no longer hold back her emotions and broke out in tears live on the air. She practically stopped eating when she found out that she had scored a grade of 0 in her final examinations, her brother told the presenter. Malak does not understand why the board of examiners claims that she did not write anything. “I studied 15 hours a day for the exam,” she told the interviewer. “God is my witness. I wanted to be the best student in the whole country.”

The official version goes that, after being top of her class for years, Malak supposedly blanked on the examination day, of all days – when a student’s future university study program is determined in Egypt. No, she says, she did not black out: Malak and her lawyers believe that her exam was intentionally switched with one written by a child of wealthy parents.

The original article can be found at www.dw.com