Heart of Stone

What is not present in this picture is childhood, but here are the three demons: Eid, Ameera, and Azza, representing the true meaning of a person whose heart is as hard as stone. Imagine an innocent little girl whose only sin in life was living with these cruel people. Even until the last moment, each one of them believed they were an angel, while in reality, their hearts were made of stone.

The complete story begins in 1995 when Aya was born in the Manshiyat Nasser area of Cairo to parents who knew nothing about a normal life. Her father, Eid, worked as a laundryman, and her mother, Ameera, was a housewife who knew nothing about managing a household. From the beginning, it was clear why they did all this to Aya. Two years after Aya's birth, those two years were filled with problems between her parents. Eid and Ameera would repeat their decision to divorce whenever the problems increased. Eventually, the divorce happened, and Ameera decided to punish Eid by leaving the child with him, stating that she had no relation with Aya. She even cut off all contact with him completely.

Eid decided to send his daughter to live with her grandmother in the countryside because she had become too much of a burden. The grandmother was as hard-hearted as stone, and Aya lived for ten years without knowing anything about education, working as a servant for her grandmother, who taught her how to clean, cook, and take care of the house. When Aya turned twelve, her grandmother decided to abandon her as well, contacting Eid to take her back because she was too old to care for her anymore.

Eid had remarried his relative Azza, and Aya lived with them for seven horrific years from 2007 to 2014, where she was subjected to the worst kinds of exploitation and torture. She worked as a servant for her father and his wife, and if she dared to rest or play like any child, she was punished with extreme violence. When she tried to run away, she was punished by being tied to a chair for fifteen days or more and continuously beaten.

Despite her eight attempts to escape, her father always brought her back and increased her torture until she turned nineteen in 2014. That year, after Azza gave birth to a new child, Aya’s suffering intensified as she now served everyone. Determined to escape again, she went to the police. Unfortunately, she didn’t tell them the truth out of fear of being returned to her father and claimed she was an orphan.

The police transferred her to an orphanage, but after an investigation, they discovered her lie and contacted her father, who finally decided to get rid of her by leaving her in the orphanage. Aya ran away from the orphanage again, but was found a week later and returned to her father, who decided to end her suffering once and for all.

Eid and Azza tied Aya by her hands, feet, and neck to a chair for seven months, where she endured the harshest forms of torture. In the end, Aya died from starvation and torture, and her body was discovered by neighbors. After an investigation, Eid confessed that he tortured her to death to discipline her and was arrested for the murder of his daughter.

Aya lived a very harsh life with heartless people, without mercy, and even her mother did not care about her fate. The cruelty of these humans made death a relief for Aya from living with them. May she rest in peace and find the comfort she never found in life.