friendly-neighborhood-patriarch:

westindianhottie:

procrasimnation:

Thousands rallied behind a
top-ranked student who not only failed her exams but was given the
lowest marks possible in a potential case of injustice and corruption.

Her
expectations were high – and rightfully so. Mariam Malak had achieved
nearly perfect marks in previous years, results which made her one of
Egypt’s top performing high school students. When final exam marks were
announced, she eagerly scanned the list top scores, but to her surprise,
her name was not on it. Still, she was still confident she’d done
enough to get into a medical school – until she saw her results, and
fainted.

“I was completely shocked,” Malak told BBC Trending. “I
couldn’t hear anyone, I couldn’t speak. I thought how can that happen?
How can I get zero?”

Malak scored zero out of 100 not just on one exam, but on all seven she
sat. The results were so incredible that she and her family immediately
suspected foul play. Initially there was speculation that Malak was
failed on purpose because she’s a member of Egypt’s Coptic Christian
minority. But that theory was quickly dismissed and now the family
believes that she is a victim of corruption.

“Either the school or the examination board swapped her papers with
another pupil who obviously wasn’t doing as well,” alleges Mariam’s
brother, Mina.

Stories of bribery and corruption are not unheard of in Egypt’s
education system. But Mariam Malak’s case received a huge amount of
public attention online. Thousands of Egyptians rallied behind her using
the hashtag “I believe Mariam Malak” and a Facebook page set up to support her gathered more than 30,000 likes.

“It’s
not just that they stole her marks, they also stole her future and
dreams,” one Egyptian woman tweeted. Another wrote: “Imagine getting
zero in 7 subjects!! It’s a disaster!”

To get the minimum possible
score, a pupil must more or less leave the paper blank, and whoever
filled out Malak’s exam papers merely wrote out the exam questions. The
Egyptian Ministry of Education investigated and subjected Malak to five
handwriting tests, afterwards concluding that the flunking exam papers
were indeed hers. She and her supporters refuse to accept that
conclusion, however, and she even did a handwriting test on live
television. It showed her writing is markedly different from that on the
exam papers. And since her story came to light, another top student
came forward to protest her own zero grades.

Malak and her family
continue to hold out hope that her marks will be reviewed. They’ve met
with the country’s prime minister who, they say, promised to look into
her case. And several prominent Egyptians have stepped forward with
offers of funding for her further education.

“We believe in God’s
justice and the law and watching the support and solidarity we’ve been
receiving from people gives us a bit of reassurance,” says Mina Malak.
“We want an impartial and transparent committee to re-open the
investigation and redo her handwriting test… we will continue until we
do justice by Mariam.”

This is so, so crushing. I cannot even imagine how awful this must be for that poor girl. 

Please pray for her.

I do still sniff bigotry on top of corruption.

The star pupil who scored zero in all her exams – BBC News