Cairo/Berlin - The Egyptian woman who was stabbed to death by a man described as "a fanatical racist" in a German court last week was buried Monday in Egypt, where the murder has caused shock and outrage. Marwa al-Shirbini, 31, was stabbed 18 times by a German man of Russian descent as she was about to give evidence against him in an appeal case in Dresden.
She was three months pregnant with her second child. Her 3-year- old son, Mustapha, witnessed the knife attack in which her husband Elwy Okaz tried to fend off the attacker.
Her attacker had earlier been fined 750 euros (1,050 dollars) for insulting al-Shirbini at a playground in 2008. She filed charges after he called her a "terrorist," apparently because she was wearing a headscarf.
Prosecutors are preparing murder charges against the man, whom they described as "a fanatical racist."
In Egypt, newspapers have dubbed al-Shirbini "the martyr of the veil." Her funeral took place in Alexandria, with Senior Egyptian officials in attendance, according to reports.
Germany's ambassador Bernd Erbel and several senior Egyptian diplomats and officials supported al-Shirbini's family at Cairo Airport when her body was flown in from Germany late Sunday. A small crowd of people also gathered at the airport, some carrying signs saying "an innocent killed."
Calls for a general boycott of German goods to protest "Nazi hate against Muslims" have appeared on Egyptian online forums and social- networking sites in recent days.
Pharmacists from Alexandria have called for a week-long boycott of German medicines, a leading member of their professional syndicate said in remarks carried by the website of Egypt's leading opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood said it was considering organizing protests in front of the German consulate in Alexandria, and that members would raise the issue in Parliament.
Internet users were divided over the utility of a boycott of German products and companies.
"Please join for the sake of Islam; protecting (the) hijab," one proponent said on the social-networking site Facebook. "It could be me and my wife."
A woman said she thought a boycott was the wrong approach. "I think we should go on with calling for our rights ... through all ... legal measures against the (German) government," she said.
"Marwa had the right to be protected as a witness in a court ... The German government is responsible for her death," she continued, calling for protesters to take their case to the German news media, which she said had "ignored" the case.
Okaz, described Monday how he was unable to help his wife fend off the attacker.
"Marwa is dead and I couldn`t save her," the 32-year-old, told Germany's mass-circulation newspaper Bild in the hospital where he is recovering from wounds suffered in the frenzied attack.
Okaz suffered serious injuries to his lungs and liver in the July 1 attack, and was also shot in the leg by a policeman who tried to overpower the assailant.
"I`m so angry that the policeman`s bullet hit me and not the killer," said, Okaz, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute.
