On the afternoon of May 14 2000 she was disturbed by an intruder. She later said she had been asleep in her drawing room when she heard a man’s voice telling her: “Fakhra ... Fakhra wake up!” “I jerked as he held me by my hair and opened my mouth. Because I resisted he couldn’t get me to swallow. But then he threw something on me. At first I thought it was a joke. I did not understand what had happened to me. Then he left, so I ran after him. My house was on the second floor and by the time I got to the first floor, I realised I could not see.”