Mona Stories · Read & Watch
The story is presented as his personal account. Its individual claims have not been independently established here, and the conduct he describes should not be attributed to any nationality as a whole.
Finding a trade
Without a clear job or reliable help arranging travel, Hossam paid to be taken into Libya through an irregular route. He passed through Al Bayda and Ajdabiya before reaching Benghazi, traveling through places including Suluq.
At first, he had no trade. Other workers directed him to a gathering place where employers hired people for construction and farm work.
He took day jobs until a painter offered to teach him the work locally called zawaga. He also tried other kinds of construction work, but painting became the trade through which customers began requesting him by name.
After roughly a year and a half, he was hired to paint part of a large family home in Derna.
The job in Derna
The presence of weapons frightened him. The family wanted only Hossam and his assistant working inside, and the project would take months.
He worried about being paid or finding himself in a disagreement he could not safely resolve. Still, the work initially continued quietly.
Then he met Rabab, a 29-year-old member of the family. She approached him privately and offered him money. He refused at first, but she left it as a gift and later returned with more.
According to Hossam, her father and brother then appeared armed and angry. Rabab accused him of approaching her. He denied it but was told he must marry her that night or face a threat to his life.
He agreed under pressure. Later, Rabab told him the situation had been arranged to conceal earlier events in her life.
A discovery makes leaving harder
Hossam completed the painting work and remained in Derna in a marriage he says he had not freely chosen.
He noticed that Rabab repeatedly requested the same Sudanese worker for errands. Suspicious, he followed the worker on one occasion and discovered an affair.
He recorded what he saw. Rabab broke his phone and warned him that her family would support her. When her brothers arrived, they accused him of insulting her.
Hossam says the family then made him leave painting for farm work and tending sheep, keeping him under observation while he searched for an opportunity to escape.
The sea crossing
He eventually left Derna but did not return to Egypt. Instead, he joined a boat traveling from Libya toward Italy.
He describes the crossing as a brush with death. The boat was endangered at sea before the Italian coast guard rescued its passengers.
In Italy, he discovered that some recordings had survived in his online account despite the broken phone. Anger led him to consider exposing Rabab and her family publicly.
The original account closes by questioning that response as well as the choices that led to the journey. Escape had ended one situation, but it had not erased the fear, danger, or bitterness he carried from it.
Watch this story
Original Mona Stories narration. Playback controls are set to English; available audio and captions depend on the video.