Egyptian women petition Sisi’s wife to free Alaa Abdel Fattah

Over 500 Egyptian women have called on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s wife, Intisar, to help free detained activist Alaa Abdel Fattah.

The petition also calls on the country’s first lady to “intervene to save the life of Dr Laila Soueif who is on hunger strike”, referring to his mother who is also a renowned human rights campaigner.

According to local Arabic media, the appeal was made by a group of Egyptian mothers who also penned a letter titled “the motherly emotion”.

The letter added that Soueif’s “health is in danger due to her prolonged hunger strike”.

Images shared of her on Monday on social media show her looking exhausted while sleeping on the floor.

“We are…appealing to you to intervene and save the life of an Egyptian mother, Dr Laila Soueif, who has been on an intense hunger strike for more than 120 days – drinking only water and warm drinks without sugar in an attempt to see her son released,” the statement said.

“We call on you, as someone who understands motherly emotions, to release him and save her life which is now in real danger”.

Souief, 68, has been on hunger strike since 27 September and maintains that she will continue with it until her son is freed or she dies.

In a letter to the UN Human Rights Council, she said: “Since 2013 we have been going between prisons and courts, our lives have come to a complete standstill, this situation cannot continue forever. I am convinced that if Alaa is released now, the situation will remain the same, so I will continue going on hunger strike.”

Abdel Fattah, 43, was arrested in September 2019 on charges of spreading false news. In 2022 he received his British citizenship while still behind bars, through his mother who was born in the UK.

He was a key figure in the 2011 revolt that toppled Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak and has been a vocal critic of Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

Since he was detained, his sentence has been renewed multiple times, and he has since been charged with joining a terrorist organisation.

His family say he was due to be released in September 2024 after serving a five-year sentence but were now told he would not be freed until 2027.

Last month, Soueif told The New Arab that she was not hopeful that UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy would be able to secure her son’s release during his visit to Cairo.

“We need actions and results, and I have not seen any results at all…I’m not getting my hopes up,” Soueif told The New Arab. 

Rights group Amnesty International has raised alarm over human rights in Egypt, stating that enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment are rampant in the country.