It's the claim that thrust Eman Sharobeem into the spotlight – a child bride, forced by her parents to marry her first cousin as a teenager.
But like so much of her unravelling life story – two non-existent PhDs, purporting to be a psychologist and fake CVs – it is nothing more than a fabrication.
Her claim to have married at age 15 is a fantasy.
Ms Sharobeem was, in fact, an adult, aged about 21 when she married in 1984.
A Fairfax Media investigation has uncovered fresh details of the extent of Ms Sharobeem's alleged fraud, including:
* the Sharobeem family transferred more than $500,000 from the sale of a Sydney property to the wife of Ms Sharobeem's nephew in Egypt just days after she was forced to give evidence at a compulsory interrogation at the corruption commission;
* the university Ms Sharobeem claims awarded her an honorary doctorate rejects the claim, and;
* a former employer has questioned the authenticity of a reference Ms Sharobeem presented to ICAC.
The revelations add to the spiralling fraud scandal that resumes at ICAC this week that has raised questions about the due diligence of federal and state government departments and ministers, the oversight of NSW Health funding and the governance of National Australia Day Council who appear to have been duped by a fanciful redemption story they never checked.
Ms Sharobeem has been accused of acting corruptly in her role, running two publicly funded not-for-profit community organisations, the Immigrant Womens Health Service and the Non-English Speaking Housing service. She is accused of misappropriating upwards of $685,000 in public funds for personal expenses she wasn't entitled to, personal spending, and for fraudulently claiming extra wages for herself and her sons under assumed names.
The $1.3 million sale last September of a Fairfield property that housed the IWHS has emerged as a key development in secret investigations into Ms Sharobeem, leading to a dramatic move to freeze her assets.
She bought the property in 2011 for $660,000, raising the rent by 30 per cent within months while failing to tell NSW Health which was funding her organisation that she had become their landlord. She also failed to disclose her ownership when she applied for $60,000 in public funds to renovate the building.
By the time of the property sale, Ms Sharobeem had been confronted by her board over alleged bogus invoices and gone on sick leave.
When the sale settled on 31 October, Ms Sharobeem paid off her $540,000 mortgage from the proceeds and put $620,000 in an offset account, ICAC has heard.
Fairfax Media has confirmed Ms Sharobeem attended a compulsory interrogation at the corruption commission soon after, on November 21.
With authorities circling, just 10 days later on 1 December, a transfer for $499,000 was made from her account to her son Charlie. A week later Charlie transferred $529,485 to Dalia Saeed Kamel in Nasr City, Egypt, ICAC alleges.
Fairfax Media has confirmed Dalia Saeed is the wife of Franswa Philip Fathy, Ms Sharobeem's nephew.
Contacted by Fairfax Media, Mr Fathy, who is employed at a large Egyptian pharmaceutical company, said: "This information is completely false and I resent this accusation."
He said he would "file a police complaint because ... we have laws in Egypt".
"If you have any more questions it is up to the Australian and Egyptian authorities to act."
He did not respond to further requests for comment.
The revelation that the Sharobeem family was allegedly seeking to expatriate large sums of money offshore to relatives by liquidating assets goes some way to explaining the asset freeze sought by the NSW Crime Commission revealed by Fairfax Media in February.
That asset freeze stopped Ms Sharobeem disposing of four Sydney properties, a car and accessing a bank account.
Having endured a torrid eight days in the witness box, Ms Sharobeem is due to give further evidence this week along with her husband Haiman Hammo and her sons, Richard and Charlie.
The celebrated former Australian of the Year awards finalist has claimed prominently to have been a child bride while building her media profile.
In a 2014 interview on ABC Radio National's Sunday Profile, host Richard Aedy asked about her first-hand experience of forced marriage.
"How old were you when you were married ?" Aedy asked.
"15.5," Ms Sharobeem replied.
Was it an arranged marriage? "Yes."
Did she have a choice? "No, the only choice was to be an obedient person."
Ms Sharobeem confirmed the story is untrue in a revealing exchange before ICAC with counsel assisting the commission, Ramesh Rajalingam.
"When were you born?," Mr Rajalingam asked. "The birth certificate indicates that it's 3 June, '63. Is that the date you understand you were born?"
"That's the birth certificate, yes," Ms Sharobeem replied.
She was asked about her her first husband, Gamal Shawky Sharobeem.
"He was my first cousin ... I knew of him since I was a little child."
Asked when she married him, she undid her own claim of being a child bride: "It could be 1984. I think 1984."
Ms Sharobeem, who claimed on CVs to government authorities to have two PhDs, conceded in evidence she did not study for a PhD but claimed she had an honorary degree from the American University in Cairo that she could not substantiate because proof had been destroyed in fires during the Arab Spring.
Fairfax Media has confirmed Ms Sharobeem never graduated or received any degree from The American University in Cairo (AUC).
"The registrar of The American University in Cairo checked and could not find any awarded AUC degree for the person in question" said Dena Rashed, media relations assistant director for the university.
"(AUC)...has not awarded Eman Sharobeem an honorary PhD degree," Ms Rashed told Fairfax Media.
Ms Sharobeem presented ICAC with a letter from the Egyptian state affiliated body National Council of Women stating she had worked for over a year and a half as director of external relations. It is signed by former secretary general Farkhonda Hassan, a close associate of Suzanne Mubarak – wife of the deposed president who was the council's first chairwoman.
"It is not stamped [with a seal] which is something very strange. Any official letter must have a government stamp on it where I sign. We can't just produce it like that," Ms Hassan said.
Ms Sharobeem has been accused of creating false invoices and tampering with receipts and documents at ICAC.
"Sharobeem worked with us for a while but we weren't comfortable with her. She didn't stay that long with us, only a few months. She left abruptly after a few months," Ms Hassan added.