Egyptian actor Mohammed Sobhy said that he was willing to pay for the education of Mariam Malak, the Egyptian high school student who said she wrongfully received a zero on all of her GCSE examinations sparking public dismay.
The famous actor called in during the Egyptian TV show "Hona El-Asema" on the CBC channel Sunday night, which hosted Malak, to denounce what happened to the student and express his solidarity with her, sympathizing with her situation.
"Don't ever lose confidence in yourself, you will find your justice and you will be an excellent student, even if your education will be outside of Egypt I will pay for it myself," Sobhy said, addressing Malak.
"I am saddened because the problem is embarrassing and troubling, I am telling the education minister that this will not belittle you, it will not belittle you to have a one in a million mistake, it saddens me that this girl feels wronged," Sobhy said as he asked the minister to admit that a mistake had occurred.
"It hurts me that this girl has become someone who is accused of lying instead of someone who is trying to fight for her rights," Sobhy continued as he said that more investigations needed to be done in order to prove Malak is telling the truth.
After an official investigation ruled out forgery as a possibility and established that Malak's results were correct on Saturday, the topic sparked strong reactions on both local media and social media, on which users launched Monday the trending Arabic hashtag that translates to "I believe Mariam Malak."
"What was stolen from Mariam Malak isn't money, a car or some gold, what was stolen from Mariam Malak is simply the dream, the trust and the future."
In her interview on "Hona Al-Asema," Malak insisted that her examination papers were manipulated or forged and that she couldn't have gotten a zero on all seven of her examinations, adding that her family has reached out to legal counsel to challenge the investigation's results.
