CAIRO (Parliament Politics Magazine) – One of the most well-known political prisoners of Egypt is still detained five months before a crucial UN climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. Alaa Abd El Fattah, who is currently on his 89th day of a hunger strike, only consumes 100 calories per day, usually in the form of a spoonful of honey in his tea or skimmed milk.
A key actor in Egypt’s 2011 revolution, Abd El Fattah, has spent the majority of the last ten years behind bars. He was first imprisoned for organising rallies against a law that effectively banned all forms of protest. He was arrested again in 2019 during anti-government protests in which he had played no part. Last year, he was sentenced to a further five years in maximum security prison for spreading false information undermining the national security for making remarks about torture on the internet.
Abd El Fattah pointed out the irony of the Cop27 UN climate meeting being held in Egypt in a message sent to his sister last week while visiting him in jail. Of all the nations to host, they picked the one that forbade protest and locked everyone up, which showed how the rest of the world was addressing that issue, he told his sister. They had no interest in working together to solve the climate problem, he added.
Environmental activists worry that their voices won’t be heard at a time when governments are desperately in need of input from civil society regarding the worrisome effects of the climate crisis because they see Abd El Fattah’s case as a litmus test for Egypt’s commitment to permit protest at Cop27.
In the foreword to a volume of Abd El Fattah’s essays that were released last year, some of which were smuggled out of prison, author and activist Naomi Klein stated that a decade ago, the world celebrated when a new generation of Egyptian activists occupied Tahrir Square and ousted a tyrant. But soon the brutality of tyranny returned, and many of the brave youth who had led that rebellion were murdered, subjected to torture, or vanished into jail cells. Alaa Abd El Fattah, a renowned writer, theorist, and motivator of his generation, was one of them.
The condition in Egypt’s prisons needs to be brought to the attention of the global climate movement. They couldn’t simply “sleepwalk” to Cop27 and act as if those weren’t crimes against humanity, she said.
After becoming a British citizen last year, Abd El Fattah went on a hunger strike to protest his treatment in prison, particularly the Egyptian government’s refusal to let British officials visit him and inquire about his well-being. His sister, Mona Seif, who is now a British citizen as well, has joined her brother in protesting the British and Egyptian governments’ rejection of his hunger strike by fasting for her 18th day on only water and salt.
The story of Abd El Fattah demonstrates the heavy price many young Egyptians have had to pay for having the courage to protest and demand democracy.
Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the president of Egypt, has quashed all political opposition since taking office in a military takeover in 2013 and has ruthlessly suppressed civil society and protest. Businesspeople, journalists, doctors, locals protesting a fare rise on the Cairo metro, and even tourists commenting on Facebook have all contributed to Egypt’s ballooning prison population. Nevertheless, Sisi has long asserted that “there are no political prisoners in Egypt.”
