The Collective Trauma of Coptic Suffering
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I was in fourth grade. I was sitting in class, jittery with excitement, smile beaming from ear to ear. My grandmother had agreed to visit my class and talk to them about her migration from Egypt to America in 1969. With her, she brought small statues of pyramids, scrolls of papyrus filled with colorful pictures of pharaohs and hieroglyphics, and of course, her Bible and cross.
With some trepidation, she began to talk about her experience of being a Coptic Christian in Egypt. She spoke of the fear in just walking to school at times, the name calling (Kafir, كافر being the most common, defined as an unbeliever or an infidel), and the overall sense of feeling unsafe, marginalized, and less than.
Stories like my grandmother’s are not uncommon amongst Copts. I imagine you could ask any Coptic family about their experiences and hear countless stories of both small and large instances of discrimination. This is not new and has been going on for centuries. Literally. Copts, like any disparaged group of people, have been fighting to be seen, heard, and treated with equality.
