Alaa Abd El-Fattah: On hunger strike and behind bars in Cairo

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In 2011, the democracy activists in Egypt were celebrated. Today, many of them have fled the country or are behind bars like Alaa Abd El-Fattah, once an icon of the uprisings. He has been on a hunger strike since April.

< p>For almost a decade, Alaa Abd El-Fattah has been in prison time and again – with brief interruptions

Until a few weeks ago, Mona Seif didn't even know if her brother was still alive: 
Alaa Abd El-Fattah is one of the most prominent political prisoners in Egypt and has been on a hunger strike since the beginning of April in protest at his detention and his prison conditions. Abd El-Fattah's contact with the outside world suddenly broke off in mid-July. For nearly ten days, family members had not heard from him and prison officials had claimed he refused to see them, Amnesty International reported. The meetings with the family are exactly what has kept Alaa Abd El-Fattah alive for years.

“Alaa is very close to all of us, our mother is his best friend,” says Mona Seif, who works in cancer research. After an international uproar, his mother Laila Soueif, a university professor, was finally allowed to see him ten days later. A pane of glass separated the two, and hugs have long been forbidden. She told him about what was happening in the world, the inflation, the increased fuel prices, the wars.

Torture and isolation in prison

She told him to let him participate in world events. A short time later he spoke up with a letter from prison, and his sister Mona Seif published excerpts: His mother's visit showed him that everything she had told him about the current world was new to him. “Frighteningly, I'm out of context. I try all day to remember what I know, to visualize, to renew my worldview, but then I despair and feel helpless and lost. I cry .”

Shortly before Alaa Abd El-Fattah had to be taken into custody: 2019 with sister Mona Seif (left ) and mother Laila Soueif (right)

Mona Seif talks about her brother's years of difficult prison conditions, about torture, about isolation, about the ban on reading newspapers. The authorities would not want him to know anything about world events. His hope and memories of a time when the dream of dignity and human rights were at stake are to be finally erased.

Alaa Abd El-Fattah was a kind with his visions and texts during the 2011 uprisings international icon of Egypt's democracy movement. He was charismatic, gave speeches in fluent English, and performed abroad. His lyrics, some of which were smuggled out of prison, were published this year as a book entitled You Have Not Been Defeated.

Alaa Abd El-Fattah “has the potential to be a leader”

The ousting of longtime ruler and dictator Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 gave him and thousands of others hope that Egypt could change. He decided to spend his life with his wife Manal in Cairo – actually he wanted to emigrate to South Africa. A few months later their son Khalid was born. Alaa Abd El-Fattah has had the dubious honor of being a political prisoner or indictee under Hosni Mubarak, Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi, and now Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the general who has officially been Egypt's president since June 2014 . But he is a particular thorn in the side of the regime of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

“The Egyptian authorities are targeting Alaa Abd El-Fattah because he has principles,” says Amr Magdi, senior researcher in the Middle East/North Africa department at Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Berlin. “They mainly target people who stick to their principles and defend democratic and human rights values.” In addition: “Alaa has the ability to inspire people. He has the potential to be a leader.” The government knows that and wants to prevent it – by all means.

Short, good times: Mona Seif and her brother Alaa Abd El-Fattah in 2014

The now 40-year-old software developer and democracy activist has spent most of the past decade in Egyptian prisons. Most recently, in December 2021, after two years in pre-trial detention, he was sentenced to a further five years in prison in a fast-track trial. The accusation: membership and financing of a terrorist organization. Allegations with which many detainees are occupied. He was also accused of spreading false news. He had shared someone else's post on the internet about prison conditions in Egypt's notorious Torah prison.

Ask for help from the UK 

A prison in which he ended up spending some time himself, until he was transferred to Wadi Natroun prison in May – after pressure from a public campaign, action by the British Consulate and some British MPs. Since his mother lived in England for a long time, Alaa Abd El-Fattah has also had British citizenship since the end of 2021. At least he can read books in Wadi Natroun, says his sister.

His hunger strike is also a protest against the fact that the British consulate has not been allowed access to him for a good six months. The family has repeatedly appealed to Liz Truss, the possible successor to Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, to stand up for her son and brother. She wanted to make herself strong, it said. The family is still waiting.

Together for the release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah in London: Richard Ratcliff – husband of Nazanin Zaghari, then imprisoned in Iran -Ratcliffe- and Mona Seif

In his most recent letter, Alaa Abd El-Fattah also describes his encounters with other political prisoners in Wadi Natroun prison. Many were arrested when they were minors. He would be sorry because they never had the opportunity to live their lives, to get married, to have children. Many of Abd El-Fattah's crooks are also political prisoners – often in appalling conditions. “Alaa and all the prisoners are a symbol of all of us who took to the streets in 2011 for a better life, so many of us were imprisoned,” said a 34-year-old woman who declined to be named. She also demonstrated back then, in 2011, and has since left Egypt. 

60,000 political prisoners in El-Sisi's Egypt

Indeed, the human rights situation in Egypt is precarious. According to different estimates, around 60,000 political prisoners have been held in Egypt's prisons since al-Sisi took power in 2013. Reporters Without Borders describes Egypt as one of the world's largest prisons for journalists. “The hopes for freedom that arose from the 2011 revolution now seem a long way off,” it says. Amr Magdi also confirms this: “If we look at Egypt's recent past, under Presidents Anwar Sadat, Hosni Mubarak and Mohamed Morsi, the human rights situation has never been as bad as it is today,” he says.

  • The icons of the revolution in Egypt 2011

    Wael Ghonim – disillusioned in the US

    In 2011, Time magazine named Wael Ghonim one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He founded the We Are All Khaled Said Facebook page, which commemorated the 28-year-old blogger who was beaten to death by police officers in 2010. The site played an important role in the 2011 uprising. The now 40-year-old has been living in the USA since 2014 – increasingly disillusioned with the situation in Egypt.

  • The icons of the 2011 revolution in Egypt

    Mahinour el-Masry – arbitrary detention

    The human rights lawyer from Alexandria was one of the first to protest the death of Khaled Said in June 2010. Mahinour el-Masry, now 35, has been arrested several times and spent several years behind bars. In 2019 she was arrested again. To date, no judge has dealt with her case, which Human Rights Watch calls “arbitrary detention.”

  • The icons of the 2011 Egyptian revolution

    Alaa Abdel-Fattah – beaten in prison

    Together with his wife Manal, Alaa Abdel-Fattah started a blog in 2004 to support Egyptian activists. In 2005, the couple received a special prize at the DW Weblog Awards. Abdel-Fattah was imprisoned for several years. He was released in March 2019 – and arrested again in September. He remains in detention and is being tortured, according to Amnesty International.

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    Ahmed Maher – on parole

    Ahmed Maher is a co-founder of the April 6th youth movement, which grew out of support for a 2008 garment workers' strike and helped organize the 2011 revolution. Like many activists, Maher (40) has been arrested several times. He was in prison from late 2013 to early 2017 – and since then can be arrested again at the discretion of the police. In 2014, the April 6th Movement was declared illegal.

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    Esraa Abdel-Fattah – imprisonment instead of the Nobel Prize

    Esraa Abdel-Fattah became known as Egypt's “Facebook Girl” for her live coverage of the protests. In 2011 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She founded the April 6th movement with Ahmed Maher and was also arrested several times. In 2019, the now 43-year-old was arrested again and is still in custody – despite international protests.

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    Ahmed Douma – behind bars, by everyone

    The activist and blogger Ahmed Douma became famous because he was thrown into prison by each of the previous governments: under the long-term autocrat Hosni Mubarak, under the Muslim Brotherhood Mohammed Morsi and in the current military regime Abdel Fattah al-Sisis. In 2019, Douma (now 32) was sentenced to 15 years in a maximum security prison and a fine of around 275,000 euros.

  • The icons of the 2011 revolution in Egypt

    Asmaa Mahfouz – family comes first

    Her Facebook video made her a symbol of the revolution: in it she called on the Egyptians to sue for their human rights, inspiring hundreds of thousands to protest. The EU Parliament awarded her the Sakharov Prize in 2011. Asmaa Mahfouz is not allowed to leave Egypt and has become more politically silent: The 35-year-old single mother takes care of her two children.

  • The icons of the revolution in Egypt 2011

    Mohammed el-Baradei – Refuge in Vienna

    The former diplomat and head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has been involved in the opposition since 2010. In 2013, Mohammed el-Baradei was vice president for a month under the current head of state, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. He resigned after a massacre of hundreds of supporters of the ousted President Mohammed Morsi. Since then he has been living in Austria.

    Author: Cathrin Schaer


“There are these strange court decisions where a judge appears in the courtroom for five minutes and sentences 500 people to death.” It was only in January that one of the most important human rights organizations in Cairo, the “Arabic Network for Human Rights” (ANHRI), officially ceased its work. The reason: In Egypt there is not even a minimum of rule of law and respect for human rights. There is also a new NGO law that makes it impossible for organizations to work independently in the future.

Not only Alaa Abd El-Fattah is well acquainted with the atrocities of Egyptian authoritarianism, but also his family. His sister Mona Seif was born while her father, who later became a human rights lawyer, was in prison. His sister Sanaa Seif also served 18 months in prison until December 2021 for “spreading false news”. Amnesty International condemned their detention. 

Alaa Abd El-Fattah wishes for a life of freedom with his son and wife. The family hopes to get support from Britain and other countries, including Germany.

Hope for a life of dignity and freedom

Although German and European politicians have repeatedly paid some attention to the human rights situation in Egypt, human rights have never been the focus of attention in recent years, says Amr Magdi from HRW. “We want these countries to consistently voice their messages on human rights in order to put pressure on the Egyptian government. We also call for the Egyptian government to cease arms supply,” said Magdi.

Sanaa Seif was also in prison until December 2021

In fact, Egypt is one of the top buyers of the German armaments industry, and economic relations are also flourishing. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has already announced a more restrictive policy that makes arms deliveries dependent on the enforcement of human rights in the country. So far, however, this has not been reflected in Egypt.

Meanwhile, Egypt's ruler El-Sisi has initiated a national political dialogue in which all party and youth currents are supposed to face the current challenges in the country. “No successful dialogue is possible without acknowledging the problem of arbitrary detention and prosecution and releasing thousands of prisoners,” says Amr Magdi. But whether that will happen is rather questionable.

Meanwhile, Mona Seif hopes that politics will not forget the democracy activists who were celebrated at the time and that her family can be reunited one day. She only sees a future outside of Egypt, should her brother's health permit: “I don't think the current regime would allow him to build a life without imprisoning him again.”