Why is Egypt's first female ship captain being blamed for blocking Suez Canal?

Egypt’s first-ever female ship captain Marwa Elselehdar said that she was blamed for jamming Panama flagged mega tanker MV Ever Given in the Suez Canal, and was held responsible for choking the key navigational artery to the global maritime trade. Claims circulated that Elselehdar, who works for German shipping and transportation company Hapag-Lloyd AG, was piloting the Taiwan-owned Evergreen Marine Corp.'s ship and wedged it in one of the most dramatic groundings. 

The first female sea captain was trolled for blocking one of the world's busiest maritime trade routes, hampering global goods cargoes and oil tankers transit incurring billions of dollar losses to countries per hour. The mammoth ship was dislodged by a Salvager team and several tug boats but trolls attacked Egypt’s first female shipmaster for the incident, now under a probe, falsely accusing her of “halting the traffic” in the Suez canal. The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has also said on April 3 that it has cleared the backlog of shipping that built up when the giant container ship was wedged. 

On social media, users launched a smear campaign against the female ship captain saying that she stranded the large vessel, whereas in fact, when the ship stuck Elselehdar was working miles away in Alexandria as the first mate in command of the Aida IV. Internet trolls, however, manipulated an Arab news agency piece, changing the headline from "Marwa Elselehdar: Egypt’s first female sea captain is riding waves of success" to "Cargo ship crashes into the Suez canal. First female Lloyd Arab captain involved in the incident". The Middle East internet launched a smear campaign against the female ship captain sharing unverified claims and disinformation, which later caught her attention. 

Egyptian female Ship captain says 'was shocked'

“I was shocked,” the Egyptian female captain said in recorded footage that she shared on her social media.

"Frankly, when I read the news, I was upset, because I worked really hard to reach the position I have reached, and anyone who works in this field knows how much effort a person has made over the years to reach this rank," Elselehdar said. She added, "One has to spend many years at sea, studying and taking exams before reaching this level." She lamented that the trolls were undermining her hard work, and blaming her falsely on account of her gender. "I graduated in 2013 and got an MBA, then I was promoted from the second officer to the first officer, and now I am a captain," she told her audience. "It is difficult to see that someone is trying to cancel all this effort, accusing me of failure or negligence," she asserted. Trolls targeted Elselehdar sharing fabricated claims arguing that the ship was stuck because a woman was in command of the vessel.