A 17-year-old Egyptian girl committed suicide after she was blackmailed with digitally altered photographs of her that were posted online. Basant Khaled was blackmailed with the photos by a young man who she refused to go with on a date. Two people were arrested in connection with the blackmail and stealing photos from the teen’s cellphone, the BBC reported on Tuesday. Blackmail in Egypt is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Basant reportedly swallowed an agricultural pesticide to end her life and died two days later in a hospital, left a handwritten letter to her family saying “Mom, believe me, the girl in those pictures is not me. These pictures were photoshopped. I swear! I’m a young girl, mom, and I don’t deserve all that’s happening to me. I’m suffering from depression, and I feel like I’m suffocating. I’m really tired. It’s not me, you raised me well.”
The Arabic hashtag “Basant_Khaled’s_right_must_be_returned” was trending on Twitter.