2-B

Panya is a young, 16 year old girl living in some small, nameless Egyptian village. She has beautiful brown eyes, dark brown – almost black hair and a petit frame. Panya is the youngest of Chigaru and Mesi’s five children. Her siblings include – from eldest down – her brothers Atemu and Saa, and her sisters Kamilah and Aziza. Panya had captured the eye of many suitors and had begun to admire one candidate secretly. To her immense satisfaction, her father, Chigaru, had allowed the one she privately adored to court her. Her guilty pleasure had always been fantasizing about some day being married to this young man, Heru, and the children they would have together. So wrapped up in her splendid fantasy, Panya forgot reality. She ended up pregnant and alone. Heru found out and left her, not wanting to be a part of the scandal. Such actions out of wedlock were both shameful and vulgar. Instead of facing the repercussions of what he did, Heru allowed Panya to be exiled into shame alone. She had no choice but to leave, her parents wouldn’t have such a disgrace.
 * Description: **

** Microsystem: ** After being disowned by her friends and family Panya couldn’t bear the humility so she went to Cairo to seek help for herself and her unborn child. Upon arriving, Panya hardly knew what she was going to do. Luckily, within two weeks she became friends with Nailah. Nailah was a 17 year old girl with chocolate colored eyes, black hair, and the eldest of three. Nailah’s father, Badru, was looking for help in the convenient store he owned and was more than happy to give Panya a chance. Over time Nailah and her family became quite close to Panya. Badru, his wife Oseye, Nailah, his son Abosi, and his second daughter Sanura gave any and all the support they could to Panya. While the support was strong throughout the family, the majority of the information Panya received about her condition was from Oseye. Panya was still nervous about the whole thing, but at least she had Oseye to guide her. Her anxiety had decreased dramatically since becoming close to Nailah’s family.

** Exosystem: ** Along with the immediate support she received from Nailah’s family, Panya also found support from the health agencies in Cairo. These people were quite helpful, answering her every question and concern. They supplied Panya with all the details she desired to help make her feel more at ease and they even recommended a community support group she could go to, to help her along the way. The thought of joining the support group made Panya feel a mix of both relief and of dread. She was grateful that there were people that she could talk to that were experiencing the exact same thing she was, but she was afraid of their reactions towards her. Panya wasn’t sure how well she would be taken by the group when they found out she was a single, soon-to-be mother. Much to her relief, the sessions didn’t turn out badly, as she expected. So Panya went once a week either with Nailah or Abasi. Panya wasn’t exactly sure why she was treated well, considering she practically got banished from her old home because she was expecting out of wedlock. She suspected that perhaps the other young people in the group thought she was indeed married – to Abasi. It wouldn’t be too uncommon, the normal age of marriage is from 15-19 [1]. However, it may be because the rules in Cairo are less strict than the ones of her small village. Whatever the reason, Panya was happy that she at least wasn’t shunned.

** Macrosystem: ** Throughout her pregnancy, Panya found that things had started looking up for her. She did miss her family and friends from back home, but she was overjoyed with the new friends she had. Things could have turned out a lot worse for her, and Panya knew it. She was still working at the convenient store for Badru, and she was making a considerable amount of money. Along with that, the goods and such that she needed weren’t overly expensive so she was able to put away some pounds[2] for when she really needed it. Despite the good fortune she was having, Panya still felt a bit timid. The people in her community spited her; it was against their culture to have a child out of wedlock. So unsurprisingly, Panya tried to keep away from any unwanted attention. She wasn’t sure how the rest of society would take to someone in her condition, so she tried to confine herself from the majority of Cairo. The only time she even thought about going in to a more populated shopping area, and away from the more secluded area where she worked and lived, was if someone was with her. As with her community group meetings, she was usually accompanied by either Nailah or Abasi. Despite possibly being looked down upon for having this child, Panya didn’t really have a choice. Considering all she has been through, Panya decided that she was going to keep the child.

** Conclusion: ** The only problem was that it was assumed that Abasi was the probable father. Panya decided that after the baby was born she was going to leave Cairo. She would tell others from around here that Abasi was simply either her brother or a family friend and that he, Nailah and the rest of their family were helping Panya while her husband, Salih, was off working. She would say that she is going to meet him in Alexandria because he had finally found a good place to live. Then when she got to Alexandria, Panya told the people there that herself, Salih, and their new born girl, Zahra, were living in Rosetta when Salih became very ill. They decide to come to Alexandria for medical treatment for him, but unfortunately they couldn’t get here in time. Panya and Zahra were treated justly and were not shunned in the least. No one knew that she wasn’t really a widow and that Zahra was actually a bastard child. Thanks to this façade Zahra would get a decent shot at her life from the very beginning – and that was all that Panya really wanted.

[1] It is true. In Egypt the age for getting married and having children is much lower than here in Canada. [2] Egyptian pounds are the currency there