Up until this very day, many people around the world are unaware of the harsh reality in Egypt since the military coup in the summer of 2013.
Egypt's military junta continues to crush any form of political expression. The criminal regime uses the judiciary and sham trials to kill the opposition and any remaining voices of reason or criticism.
*Human rights organizations reject the ruling of the highest appeal court, to uphold the death sentences for those who survived “the massacre of Rabaa”.
*We the people of Egypt and all the innocent political prisoners expect honorable and fair citizens of the world to stand against injustice and oppression by the military junta in Egypt.
Please use the different materials created by Freedom Initiative on your social media accounts and in newsletters:
*Read and share these links on the recent death sentences and the political turmoil in Egypt, help one or two individuals learn about what is going on in Egypt.
A group of Egyptian activists and ordinary citizens who are never mentioned in English media coverage
For some reason Middle East Eye decided to interview only a handful of famous activists who are not only known to have very liberal positions, but also are very open about having supported and rallied people in Egypt and abroad for #June30.
While they have all by a way or another paid a price from their personal freedoms due to the crackdown of the Egyptian military dictatorship on all opponents, they all clearly insist on stating that they "don't regret supporting #June30", a movement recognized as undemocratic, irrational, and catastrophic by all those who care or don't care about the prosperity of Egypt.
It is shocking and disappointing to see how Middle East Eye is shifting more and more towards giving a platform only to liberal and secular celebrity voices in Egypt, a trend that has been apparent in the majority of western media outlets since protests erupted in Egypt in 2011. If Middle East Eye is seriously concerned with the Egyptian turmoil they need to do a better job than this. You can hire an Arabic-English translator or try to find more people to interview other than the 10 upper-middle-class Egyptians who supported the coup whom everyone in the world interviews since 2011. We are writing this blog however because we were delighted to see a wonderfully written response from a commentator on the silly article. The comment breaks down the issue of Egyptian liberal elites contributing to the crisis in Egypt. To our surprise, the comment was by Jim Toth, an anthropologist who studies Egypt, the Arab world, and the wider Islamic
community. He has taught at the American University of Cairo and at
Northeastern University, and since 2011, has worked at New York
University in Abu Dhabi. He is the author of Rural Labor Movements in Egypt and Their Impact in the State, 1961-1992.
Here is a link to the Middle East Eye article:
http://www.middleeasteye.net/in-depth/A-revolution-betrayed-living-in-Egypt-s-worst-era-1003870706 Here is Jim Toth's brilliant response: Abdel Fatah and her friends are hypocrites. Democracy is when all the people voice their choice and opinion. She and her friends may have their own opinion – support Sisi and oppose Morsi – and so let them vote their choice along with all the millions of other voters in Egypt by holding honest elections.
But to support an anti-democrat such as Sisi and to support the anti-democratic forces that removed Morsi without due process of an election – this is hypocritical. Don’t say Abdel Fatah was a “co-founder” of April 6. She and her friends are still hypocrites because in the last election prior to July 3, Morsi had won, and they should, if they are true democrats, respect the people’s decision.
It is not up to them and their elitist friends (the National Salvation Front) to use their social position, their access to the media, and their westernized demeanor to then remove a democratically-elected president, or support his illegal removal, whether or not he made serious mistakes (mistakes that were amplified and exaggerated by an anti-Brotherhood media).
Nobel prize? Perhaps she ought to stand in line behind Trump. Both are so preposterously unqualified for a Nobel prize that to consider them seriously degrades the value of the prize itself.
For good reason or bad, the majority of ordinary Egyptians had voted in Morsi, and thus, Abdel Fatah, along with her elitist friends, along with Sisi and the military, have no right in a democracy to overturn the election, unless they are willing to admit it is anti-democratic act and, therefore, the first step on the road to an authoritarian regime. To then pat themselves on the back and say “what good liberals we are” is the height of hypocrisy.
Is this a conflict between “east Cairo” (old Islamic Cairo) (along with Giza) against European Cairo (the nationalists) and the “wings” of New Cairo and October 6 (the neo-liberals)? Abdel Fatah and her crowd are so willing to dismiss the values and principles of the majority of her country-men and -women in those areas who wanted, and voted for, an uncorrupted (naïve?) candidate as president, one that did not have all the un-Egyptian trappings of ibn al-zayyat. In the last presidential elections, many more Egyptians supported a Muslim Brotherhood government than they supported a secular, westernized elitist government.
She and her friends ought to recognize that, show some humility, some respect, and in democratic fashion, work within the system rather than support and commit extra-legal, unconstitutional acts.
For
all her deeds, and those of her friends, they got Sisi, a 100-fold
worse than Morsi. Had they been patient, respectful, and lawful, or had
insisted on respect, legitimacy, and real democracy, they would not be
stuck with Egypt’s worst dictator.
Perhaps they got what they deserved, but, of course, they are not going to be the ones who really hurt for it. But it is the Egyptian people, those unable to make it through the dismal economy and those jailed for belonging to the Brotherhood, who do not deserve this calamity.
This crime lies squarely on the shoulders of the secular liberals who ought to have known better, but made a pact with the devil in order to assure themselves that their beliefs and way of life are better than those of the majority of Egyptian.
The BBC made a story recently on politically motivated enforced disappearances in Egypt after the military coup in 2013. The report featured a few cases one of them was a middle aged Egyptian woman who spoke on her daughter named Zubayda who was kidnapped and disappeared by the Egyptian state for over a year. Her testimony brought so much attention and created an uproar in the Egyptian social media sphere to the degree that the Egyptian state had to do something.
This isn't the first time local and international human rights organizations or international media spoke of the phenomenon. When the Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni was disappeared and then killed in Cairo the whole world spoke of the incident for a long time. Local and international human rights organizations have documented and spoke of 1,000s of enforced disappearance cases for the past 4 years.
However, this latest report seemed to disturb the Egyptian state so much to the degree that they eventually forced the young woman Zubaida who was disappeared for a year to come on Egyptian TV and deny that she was arrested and disappeared as the BBC report showed. It was a pathetic set up and it was clear that Zubayda had to do this under so much pressure. Her mother who appeared on the BBC was detained today, Feb 28th, 2018.
The Egyptian general prosecutor ordered lawyers and prosecutors to "Watch and report news and reports made by forces of evil". Pro-Sisi's social media accounts are roaming the internet denying that there is any torture, imprisonment, or enforced disappearances in Egypt.
While there is some spotlight on the situation in Egypt and while the issue is hot, we wanted to remind the international community and those who are confused because they can't get reliable information on what is going in Egypt that there are atrocities being committed in Egypt while the whole world is ignoring us.
We wanted to remind all of you that there was a military coup in July 2013 and that as a result of this tragedy thousands of Egyptians have paid a very high price for standing against injustice. We wanted to remind all of you that there are tens of thousands of unjustly imprisoned men, women, boys, girls, and elders whose only crime was speaking up. Ignoring what is going on in Egypt while you can say something helps the Egyptian state continue to get away with all of this.
We would like to salute all of the local Egyptian human rights organizations and human rights defenders who are working under so much pressure and risking their lives and future by continuing to do this work with very little support and recognition.
We would also like to thank the BBC team and those in HRW and other international organizations for utilizing their privileges and speaking about what is going on in Egypt from time to time.
Please check out our archives on the blog here as well as the following outlets for more related information and detailed reports on enforced disappearances in Egypt after the military coup:
Egipat: islamofobija, opresija i političko zatvaranje
Sara i Rana su dvije sestre u ranim
dvadesetim godinama sa obrazovanjem medicinskih nauka, jedna je doktor
medicine, a druga je farmaceut, njihov otac je ugledni univerzitetski
profesor nauka.
Prije dvije godine, oni su zaustavljeni dok su
vozili u Aleksandriju na kontrolnom punktu samo zbog nikaba kojeg nose
(egipatske sigurnosne snage zaustavljaju sve osobe i ispitaju sve
muslimane na kojima su tragovi vjere), a zatim ove dvije sestre su,
stavili u zatvor i optužili ih za "bombaški napad na ambasadu u
Nigeru"bez ikakvog dokaza ili osnove za optužbe.
Njihov brat je
aktivno učestvovao u kampanji da ih oslobodi, a potom je i on uhapšen i
pritvoren zbog toga što je govorio o ovom slučaju. Danas je nakon dvije
godine zatočeništva sestara (Sara) dobila je smrtnu kaznu i rečeno joj
je da će uskoro biti pogubljena!
Postoji veoma duga istorija
sekularnih sigurnosnih snaga koje su dovele do islamofobije i
diskriminacije muslimana u Egiptu od vremena Nasera, Sadata i Mubaraka.
Ovo se intenziviralo od vojnog udara u 2013. godini, kog podstiču i
egipatski i zapadni mediji. Toliko Egipćana ciljano je bačeno u zatvor
samo na osnovu njihovog izgleda.
Žene kao što su Sara i Rana ne
dobijaju nikakvu podršku medija ili udruženja za ljudska prava da bi
Egipatski tiranin Sisi oslobodio naše sestre iz zatvora.
Citirajući Abdulrahmana, brata od 2 sestre, a za vas info, uhapšen je
zbog podrške svojim sestarama u zatočeništvu, prijećeno mu je hapšenjem
ako ne zaustavi svoje aktivnosti da ih oslobodi i nije obraćao pažnju na
svoje riječi sve dok nije bio uhapšen i zatvoren!
Abdulrahman
je napisao na svojoj Facebook stranici prije hapšenja o stradanju svojih
sestara: Sarah i Rana Abdullah Al-Sawy ... Uhapšeni su od 17-9-2015,
putujući sa svojim ocem u Aleksandriju na kontrolnom punktu, i držane su
skrivene u prostorijama državne bezbjednosti i vođene kao "nestalim"
najprije su bile mučene 5 dana!
Otišli su u Državno tužilaštvo i
njihov otac je oslobođen nakon 5 dana! Oni su izmislili slučaj protiv
Sare i Rane i optužili ih za bombaški napad na ambasadu Nigeru a zatim
su prebačene na vojni sud u kampu Huckstep uz kontinuirano odlaganje
suđenja! Sestre se nisu viđale, osim u tužilaštvu nakon 5 dana! Sara je
čula zvuk vrištanja i plača, a policajci su joj rekli da su to zvukovi
mačke! Kakav je ovo zločin? Dok se (Sestre) sastale na dan suđenja, ona
(Sarah) je saznala da je to bio glas njene sestre Rane tokom njenog
mučenja. Bila je mučena električnim šokovima.
Ni ljudi nisu
mogli nositi taj teret (mučenja), pa kako je onda sa slabašnim ženama?
Intenzitet mučenja se povukao, a ruka joj je bila paralizovana i nije
mogla da je pomjeri zbog tortute elektro šokova! Zatim, nakon zavođenja
tužilaca, nedelju dana prije suđenja, Sara je osuđena na smrtnu kaznu.
These are the names of 6 Egyptian young men whose death sentence was confirmed just a few days ago after the last appeal was refused. The only way to stop their execution is a presidential pardon.
They are all loved and respected by everyone in their circles and are distinguished individuals who are students and graduates of the faculties of medicine, engineering, pharmaceuticals, and sciences.
As many might know, execution has been used as a political punishment in Egypt since 2013.
In this case, the young Egyptian men were all kidnapped, forcibly disappeared, tortured, and forced to confess to a proposed crime of killing one person!
This is how they looked like before and after they were tortured by the Egyptian security forces:
Ibrahim Azab's parents with a portrait of their son whose death sentence was recently confirmed
Their families and supporters in Egypt have been blogging and writing about their case on the following hashtags on social media:
The Egyptian military government decided to pardon 200 Egyptian prisoner. Take a look at this emotional and powerful moment, at this expression of freedom. These prisoners suffered so much inside and their families suffered with them along the way.
It's worth mentioning that the Egyptian state media declared that they will not pardon a single one member of the Muslim Brotherhood or any political Islamic movement in Egypt. This verify two things:
1- The secular Egyptian state is oppressing and discriminating against Egyptians who have certain political and intellectual orientation even while they are innocent and non-violent.
2- There are over 60,000 Egyptian political prisoner and they are not all only Morsi supporters and Muslim Brotherhood like the western media likes to label them all.
Check our Facebook page for more pictures and news:
Why would a super star footballer with an international reputation become on a terrorist list?
Welcome to Egypt!
Mohamamd Abu Treka is one of the Egyptians who're recently put on a terrorist list.
January 17th, 2017:
In another attack on civil rights and liberties in Egypt, 1500 Egyptians were put on a terrorist list, most of them without any prior investigations and solely based on political foundation.
Among the names are Mohammad Morsi, the first civilian democratically elected president of Egypt as well as Mohamamd Abu Treka, one of the most popular Egyptian and Arab footballer and an icon for Al Ahly football team.
The list has over 100 women, political prisoners, hundreds of youth, journalists, and Egyptians from all walks of life. There are also names of persons who are already dead.
Some of these individuals have already been imprisoned for several years since the military coup ( over political charges), while the others who're outside will now face a serious threat of their rights being violated, assets being frozen, and passports taken away from them as well as several other restrictions on their travel, movement, and business in Egypt.
Some of the individuals on the new terrorist list:
Samhy Mostafa is a journalist who's been in prison for 3 years and is serving a life sentence.
Abu Bakr Mashali, a young Egyptian enginner who left Egypt after the military coup
Hesham Gaffar, a leftist journalist and academic who's been in prison over political basis.
Sondos Asem, an Egyptian academic in Britain is one of the women who are put on the terrorist list recently and has received a death sentence. You can read her story here:
The Egyptian state's definition of who is a terrorist was really stretched since the July 3rd military coup in 2013. Since then it includes anybody who opposes or criticizes the Egyptian state/government.
It's important for the western policy makers as well as any non-Egyptian reader and follower of the situation in Egypt to understand the motivations behind these decisions made by the Egyptian state.
These are six of the ten young Egyptian citizens from Al Arish city in Sinai who were killed today by the Egyptian security forces after being kidnapped and disappeared for several months.
In this photo are Abdel Atty, Bilal, Ahmed, Muhammad, Ahmed, and Mansour. All ten were between the ages of 18 and 27!
The official Egyptian government statements and their subservient media accused the ten young men of being Takfiri terrorists. The young men were mostly students, taxi drivers, and poor unemployed folks - your average people from Sinai.
We couldn't find any English coverage for the story but the Egyptian Facebook feeds are flooding with accounts from families, supporters, and citizen journalists reports in Arabic only. We are trying to shed some light over the continuity of human rights violations against innocent Egyptians in Sinai.
The Egyptian security forces killed Ahmed Yusuf Muhammad Rasheed and nine other young men today in Sinai.
Ahmed was married three months ago. As the Egyptian security forces kidnapped him from his apartment, they kicked his pregnant wife in the stomach, killing her child.
Now she has not only lost her child because of the Egyptian military, but she has lost her husband as well.
Mohammad Ibrahim Ayyub was 22 years old. He was a taxi driver in Al Arish in Sinai. He was disappeared for two months and was among the victims of the Egyptian security forces today.
Bilal Al Naggar, a student who lived in Beer Al Abd in Sinai, was also disappeared for two months and was killed today in the same case.
The families of the 10 young Egyptian men who were kidnapped and then killed today by the Egyptian security forces in Al Arish Sinai after being falsely accused of terrorism. The Egyptian state is covering up on its failure to maintain security on the peninsula by arresting, kidnapping, and killing innocent Egyptians. UPDATE 1/15/2017: In response to these extrajudicial killings the community in Al Arish gathered to plan their response:
Today there are thousands of people out in the streets of Al Areesh, Sinai, holding funeral prayers for the young men and protesting against the continued killing of innocent Egyptians by the Egyptian military, all in the name of the War on Terror. We have photos and video of these protests below:
In the below video protesters are calling for justice, and saying that the young men did not die in vain:
International Women Day: Egyptian women under military rule in 2016
Prepared by: The Unheard Egypt team
Egyptian women: The female political prisoners and victims of the military:
Egyptian women and girls have been at the forefront of the movement in Egypt
On International Women Day 56 Egyptian women and girl are still in prisons for crimes they haven't committed. The U.S government and the EU governments continue to remain silent about all these violations. In facts, the numbers and realities show that they support and collaborate with this regime in its oppression against women.
For the most part, there's been very little on the politically motivated violations of human rights against females in Egypt especially after the military coup. Only a few cases received some attention but for the most part there has been a continuous neglect for the reality of this crisis from international organizations and international media.
From Twitter: Look at the hashtags: #IWD #IWD2016 #Egypt
Heba Qashta, the first female to receive a military sentence in a military trial who's been in prison since 2014 is an example for young Egyptian women who're arrested after the military coup, and yet don't receive as much media attention or humanitarian support, mostly because of their demographics. Being low income, from outside of the center of attention (Cairo), and not looking very western are among the reasons the bias takes place.
Heba's family and friends have been trying to raise awareness about her case on their own, where they are in the Nile Delta, and it's a very admirable effort.
Heba is born in 1994 and she was involved in her own campus in a governorate outside of Cairo, these are places the western media and international human rights organizations have continuously avoided and ignored.
For more information about Egyptian women in prison you can check out these pages:
*Egyptian women: The family of the political prisoner:
"My soul is imprisoned with you!" is the slogan of the Egyptian woman who's a mother, a wife, a daughter, or a sister of a political prisoner in Egypt. The families of political prisoners are going through sever hardships and are getting their share of unjust inhumane treatment by the security forces, in addition to the emotional, psychological, and financial burdens they have to go through.
Wives and family members of political prisoners camp over night in order to be able to see their loved ones the next day!
More details on Al Aqrab prison, and the hunger strike that's ongoing there:
On March 8th, 2016 a group of Egyptian women protested in several parts of the country and made a strong statement against the imprisonment and forced disappearance of their family members and friends, who are also women and girls.
These events don't get any media coverage outside of Egypt because of the demographics of the women who are participating and organizing. Unfortunately, they are not prominent secular activists from Cairo. Many of them traveled for hours to participate, many of them are regular people.
Protesting is a very courageous act in Egypt right now and has a very high price, especially for women and girls.
