FULL TEXT: Cairo (Nana) – It’s a woman’s world – even in Egypt where man has ruled the household with an iron fist ever since the days of the pharaohs.
That’s what police discovered when they finally trapped and
arrested a bearded 37-year-old bandit named Zein Khattab Ghanzala who for the
past 10 years has terrorized the entire Behaira Province in the Nile delta.
Zein, known as Egypt’s “Al Capone,” kidnapped dozens of Egyptians
and collected untold thousands of pounds in ransom.
Members of Zein’s roving gang were said to tremble in their
leader’s presence, and Egyptian farmers hurried home from their fields before
sunset for fear they would be robbed or hacked to death by this notorious
highway bandit.
But when police finally found the gang’s secret hideout and
hauled Zein off to jail, they got a rude shock.
Ordered to disrobe and take a bath in jail, the bearded Zein
blushingly refused, declaring:
“I cannot take off my clothes in front of men – because I am
a woman.”
Three doctors hastily summoned by the police testified that
the terror of Behaira Province was 100 per cent woman despite the beard and
muscles hard as steel.
Collapsing in tears, Zein Explained:
“I began to grow the beard when I was only 14. After that no
man would look at me. So I vowed to terrorize these weakened male creatures –
and I got my revenge in kidnapping and plunder.”
Zein also confessed to moments of female weakness.
“There were nights,” she said, “when I yearned for a man to
hold me in his arms. On those nights I would dress to women’s clothes, hide my
face and walk through the fields. But every man who saw me would think I was a
ghost and run away. Men – I hate them all.”
[Charles P. Arnot, “Egypt’s Fierce Bearded Bandit Found to
Be Man Hating Girl,” The Milwaukee Journal Green Sheet (Wi.), Feb. 16, 1960, p.
1]
[590-5/6/21]
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Yes, she was a murderer and a bandit, but honestly, her backstory is pretty sad.
ReplyDeleteTrue, just as with Charles Manson.
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