It has been 13 years since Hend Gamal stood beside her father’s deathbed, not knowing what to do, her teenage emotions overwhelmed by grief, shock and confusion. A mental image of the “hardest moment in her life” still runs through her head. “I had never thought I would lose him,” Gamal said. “Few people are prepared for such a moment.”

Gamal still recalls the bustle and blur as she tried to obtain a burial permit and organize her father's funeral. “I was a mere 18,” Gamal said. “My fear of being alone was coupled with the sheer horror of not knowing what to do now that he was dead, how to bury him.”

She quickly discovered how financially costly the death of a relative can be, as many people sought to overcharge her for services when they recognized her inexperience and realized that she was on her own. Gamal's mother had died when she was a child, and after that she had lived alone with her father.

Today people who find themselves in need of guidance like Gamal can turn to two online platforms that offer assistance with “afterlife services.” Among the services and items provided are a ghusl (the full-body wash required by Islam and done by “hanoutis,” or undertakers, or by family members), shrouds and coffins.