For the second time in less than a month, Zawia3 has been blocked in Egypt. Thirty-three international and regional human rights and press organizations, including Canada’s McGill University and media platforms Daraj and Raseef22, condemned the action as a serious violation of press freedom and a new escalation in censorship of independent media.
Since mid-February, users reported intermittent access problems through some internet providers. Technical investigations confirmed a “Reset Attack,” which cuts the connection as users attempt to enter, indirectly preventing access.
On February 20, Zawia3 issued a statement confirming the blocking, noting that more than 500 news and rights websites had already been blocked in Egypt in recent years. It created an alternative domain, zawia3.net, but an unidentified entity blocked that too on February 27, revealing clear targeting and efforts to prevent any route to readers.
Targeting independent media and restricting expression
The signatories expressed deep concern over mounting restrictions, describing Zawia3’s blocking as part of a broader strategy to suppress independent journalism and deny citizens diverse information sources. Press freedom is a fundamental right and a cornerstone of democracy. The measures violate Egypt’s constitution and international commitments, particularly ICCPR Article 19 on expression and receiving and imparting information without unlawful restrictions.
Escalating digital restrictions: new tools to repress media
The statement highlighted techniques such as Reset Attacks, which make access unstable and difficult rather than directly shutting websites down, encouraging users to give up without understanding the censorship. These methods isolate independent voices and foster fear and self-censorship among journalists and activists, narrowing public discussion and weakening free expression.
Lifting the block or continuing isolation?
The organizations demanded that Egypt immediately unblock Zawia3 and all independent sites, stop digital censorship and practices obstructing journalism, and ensure journalists’ safety from security and legal harassment. Continued silencing would deepen media isolation and international criticism of Egypt’s press-freedom commitments.
Zawia3 will remain
In its statement following the block, Zawia3 asked what makes an entity decide a journalistic website should no longer be accessible, and what danger there is in allowing people more than one perspective. This is a comprehensive attempt to reshape permissible public discourse and control information and ideas.
The platform pledged to continue, seeking technical alternatives and other platforms to reach audiences. “Journalism is not a privilege granted by authority, nor a voice silenced by closing a window.” When its main domain closed, it moved; when the new one closed, it sought alternatives. Truth finds an opening even through closed doors. Blocking is not the end, but a desperate attempt to delay what cannot be concealed. “We are here, and we will remain.”
Restricting press freedom
Other independent Egyptian outlets have suffered the same fate, including Al-Manassa, Mada Masr, Masr 360, Zat Masr, Cairo 24 and Al-Sulta Al-Rabia.
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned Zawia3’s blocking as systematic repression. Its official statement said authorities increasingly use technology to restrict independent media and information access. It urged an end to censorship, noting Cairo 24’s November 2024 blocking and hundreds of earlier cases. Egypt’s Supreme Council for Media Regulation had not answered its request for comment.
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms’ statement said the “Save Free Expression” campaign viewed the decision as punishment for covering sensitive political and rights issues. Blocking since 2017 sends a message against journalism that does not follow official publishing instructions.
The campaign rejected blocking, banning and confiscation powers granted to the media council, describing those laws as flawed and repressive. Even those rules were exceeded in Zawia3’s case. More than 600 news and rights sites have been targeted since 2017; some legal challenges have produced no tangible results. It urged an open public sphere, information access and journalists’ freedom from pursuit.
Mahmoud Kamel, head of the Journalists Syndicate’s Freedoms Committee, told Zawia3 this extends policies against content or editorial positions displeasing authorities, through both blocking and obstruction of licences. The syndicate has repeatedly opposed these incomprehensible policies and demanded their end.
Recommended reading: A Statement from Zawia3: Blocking, Journalism and the Public’s Right to Know and Choking Independent Journalism: How Platforms Are Denied Licences in Egypt.
The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) said the Supreme State Security Prosecution renewed 49-year-old journalist and writer Ahmed Serag‘s detention for 15 days in case 7/2025. Charges include terrorist-group membership, terrorism financing, false news and using a website to promote a terrorist act.
Serag was arrested after interviewing Nada Moghith, wife of cartoonist Ashraf Omar, on Zat Masr’s channel. She alleged officers took money from their home during her husband’s arrest raid.
In February, the criminal court renewed Ashraf Omar‘s pretrial detention, more than six months after his home was raided and he was taken to an unknown location before appearing before prosecutors.
EIPR reported that journalist Moataz Bellah Hassab El-Nabi, detained for three and a half years, was transferred from Tenth of Ramadan to Minya prison without explanation or permission to take essential belongings. The move imposes arduous travel from Cairo on his family.
Arrested on July 12, 2021, over Facebook posts he denied owning, he faces charges of knowingly joining a terrorist group, false information harmful to public security and citizens’ interests, and using social media for false news. He was referred to criminal trial in January, with no first hearing circuit yet assigned.
On February 10, journalist Khaled Mamdouh Mohamed Ibrahim’s detention was renewed for 45 days in Supreme State Security case 1282/2024. Arrested after a home raid on July 16, he was forcibly disappeared for six days and appeared before prosecutors on July 21. They accused him of terrorist-group membership and financing and false news harmful to public security, seizing his phone and laptop.
Alaa Abdel Fattah’s mother hospitalized after 151 days on hunger strike; UN experts call for his release
Academic and rights defender Laila Soueif was hospitalized in Britain after her health deteriorated during a 151-day hunger strike against her British-Egyptian son Alaa Abdel Fattah’s continued detention beyond his sentence. Her family said admission came on day 149 after dangerously low blood sugar and a sharp blood-pressure drop. She had survived on coffee, tea and rehydration sachets and lost nearly 30 kilograms since September 2024.
Her daughter Mona Seif wrote on X that time was running out, appealing to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy. Starmer pledged in February to do everything possible to secure Alaa’s release. Amnesty International’s statement expressed concern for Soueif and demanded his return to his family.
UN experts urged an immediate end to his unlawful, arbitrary detention. He has spent most of the past 14 years in pretrial custody or serving terrorism and State Security sentences, charges widely used against political opponents.
The OHCHR statement said that merely expressing an opinion or commenting online can lead to arrest, detention, torture or disappearance in Egypt. Alaa completed his latest term on September 29, 2024, but remains held because pretrial time was not deducted, although Egyptian Penal Code Article 482 requires deduction, the statement said.
Experts cited case recycling, adding detainees to new cases on the same charges to extend custody. Many journalists, defenders and activists face prosecution for their opinions. At Egypt’s recent UN human rights review, authorities said Alaa would not be released before January 2027. The experts remained in contact with Egypt and urged compliance with international obligations.
On Wednesday, a Civil Democratic Movement delegation delivered an urgent petition at Ittihadiya Palace to President El-Sisi for Alaa and all opinion and expression prisoners. It included Socialist Popular Alliance leader and movement board chair Medhat El-Zahed, Constitution Party leader Gameela Ismail, spokesperson Walid El-Amary, Bread and Freedom co-founder Elham Eidarous and Constitution Party front-work official Hamdy Qeshta. The petition was formally received by the presidential secretariat.
The action sought to save Soueif’s life after Sanaa Seif posted a video of her mother on the second day at St Thomas’ Hospital, visibly exhausted from severe hypoglycaemia. Social-media solidarity spread under #SaveLaila, #LailaIsInDanger and #SaveLaila.
Eidarous also published a statement from Egyptian mothers asking First Lady Intissar El-Sisi to intervene. They appealed to maternal feeling to free Alaa and save 68-year-old Soueif, who since September 30 had consumed only water and unsweetened warm drinks and was in real danger.
El-Zahed told Zawia3 that the movement has always supported freedoms and a modern civil democratic state based on balanced powers, law and citizenship. It raised peaceful prisoners’ cases early, arguing circumstances had changed and innocence is presumed. Pretrial detention should be limited and necessary to protect society, evidence or witnesses; opinion prisoners pose no danger. Around two months earlier it asked the prosecutor general to exercise release powers.
He cited Alaa and Mohamed Adel as political prisoners who completed sentences but remain held. The movement demanded a general amnesty, particularly amid external threats from Israel’s regional aggression and Trump’s coercive demands to displace Palestinians into Egypt and Jordan. National security requires unity and internal cohesion, including freeing people historically at the forefront of Egyptian patriotism.
Soueif suffered through years of her son’s imprisonment. During an earlier release, police probation required hours at the station even at Ramadan iftar; she ate on the pavement beside him. After his re-arrest she campaigned for a letter from him, then began the almost five-month hunger strike.
At Ramadan’s approach the movement appealed for presidential amnesty for peaceful convicted opponents and political prisoners in poor health, and for prosecutors to release pretrial detainees, consistent with the National Human Rights Strategy.
Recommended reading: Laila Soueif’s Home Becomes a Solidarity Centre on Alaa Abdel Fattah’s Birthday and Freedom Deferred until 2027: Is the Law a Tool to Punish Alaa Abdel Fattah?.
Workers’ rights
The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services reported three deaths after a tank exploded at Misr Spinning and Weaving’s new power station in Mahalla El-Kubra on February 22. Suspected years of neglected maintenance caused injuries to four workers. Ayman Aboul Fadl died Tuesday; Mohamed Atwa and Mohamed Kassab died Wednesday.
It renewed demands for effective industrial inspections and accountability after hundreds of injuries and deaths. Factory and machine operators recorded 1,946 injuries in 2023, 23.4% of industrial-sector injuries.
Nine released T&C garment workers, arrested following a minimum-wage strike, found management barred them from entering and arbitrarily dismissed them. A 15-day suspension ended February 16, 2025. They filed labour-office complaints and police records; some were offered three months’ pay in return for withdrawing complaints and resigning.
The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights expressed grave concern about unionist Shady Mohamed’s unknown whereabouts as he entered a second hunger-strike week against harsh detention and transfer to Borg El-Arab. At a February 18 Badr remand hearing, his name appeared on Tenth of Ramadan Rehabilitation 6 lists. Lawyers said he had moved to Borg El-Arab, but officials there denied holding him, according to his wife Salwa Rashid.
A founder of the Permanent Congress of Alexandria Workers and leader of the independent Linen Group textiles union, he was arbitrarily dismissed in 2019 after wage protests. Arrested October 3, 2022, for terrorist-group membership and false news, he was released October 24. He was arrested again outside his Alexandria home on April 29, 2024, one day after five youths were detained for a Palestine banner. After transfer to Borg El-Arab 2, he began an open hunger strike.
ECESR secured two judgments from South Giza First Instance Court awarding two Universal Engineering Industries workers EGP 419,000 for a second arbitrary dismissal, notice compensation, unused leave and wage arrears. Following a July 15, 2024 reinstatement judgment requiring work the next morning, they were denied entry. They filed new complaints after amicable efforts failed.
In a statement, the labour services centre criticized parliament’s Manpower Committee for approving new Labour Law articles without hearing affected workers. It said the draft copies much of the old law and launched “Towards a Fair Labour Law” against provisions undermining job security and protest tools.
The committee approved wage provisions: Article 107 calculates average daily wages using actual days worked in the previous year; Article 108 preserves acquired rights when monthly workers move to daily or hourly pay; Article 109 guarantees full wages to workers present and ready when the employer prevents work.
Article 110 prohibits employers requiring purchases from their own outlets. Article 112 caps wage deductions at 25%, with exceptions such as employer loans. Article 115 limits work to eight hours daily and 48 weekly; Article 116 provides at least an hour’s daily rest when work exceeds six hours; Article 118 guarantees at least 24 consecutive paid hours of weekly rest, with remote-location or emergency exceptions.
Article 195 requires ongoing social dialogue and allows government intervention if a party refuses negotiation. Article 170 sets retirement at 60, rising gradually to 65 by 2040, with discussion emphasizing insurance rights before and after retirement.
The committee considered domestic workers after earlier passing provisions for foreign domestic workers while ignoring Egyptian counterparts, contrary to equality. Penalty provisions including Article 181 were deferred over constitutional concerns for review by the speaker. Article 174 on employment certificates was also postponed.
ECESR director and rights lawyer Malek Adly called the draft very poor: new legislation should resolve old problems, but it repeats strike restrictions and fixed-term contracts that treat workers as machines vulnerable to employer pressure. The old law failed to protect wages against inflation; the new draft repeats those weaknesses.
It permits unilateral termination with three months’ notice, formally equating employer and worker, whereas the old arrangement required agreement. Amid widespread arbitrary dismissal, courts award only the two-month-per-year minimum. The periodic increase drops from 7% to 3%. Adly said the law prioritizes employers and the Federation of Industries and treats workers as employer property.
On the Mahalla explosion, he said occupational safety should protect workers, and deaths caused by maintenance neglect constitute a crime requiring investigation by prosecutors and the safety committee.
Recommended reading: Labour Protests in Egypt: All Windows for Peaceful Negotiation Closed and Growing Labour Protests Mirror Egypt’s Economic Crisis.
A report on Belgian weapons’ role in Egyptian rights abuses
EgyptWide for Human Rights and Belgium’s CNAPD published a report on Belgian weapons produced under licence in Egypt, their use in internal repression and abuses, and their spread beyond Egypt.
Despite export restrictions imposed since 2013, firms circumvented them through licensed overseas production. FN FAL rifles and FN MAG machine guns repeatedly appeared in repression between 2013 and 2023. FN Herstal, Herstal Group, New Lachaussée and Nexter Group (KNDS) exported production lines or intellectual-property rights, maintaining Cairo ties despite legal restrictions.
Licensed production also enabled Egyptian exports to Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, the Central African Republic and Eritrea, worsening regional proliferation.
European and Belgian rules, including Wallonia’s 2012 decree and EU Common Position 2008/944/CFSP, inadequately regulate production-line and intellectual-property exports. The report urged stronger rules to close loopholes, prevent circumvention, curb proliferation and reduce associated abuses.
Recommended reading: The New Criminal Procedure Bill: A Step toward Justice or Restrictions on Freedoms? and Rights Advocates Propose Amendments to Ensure a Fair Criminal Procedure Law.
The European Parliament hears criticism of Egypt’s human rights situation
On February 18 in Brussels, the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights heard EuroMed Rights vice-president Moataz El-Fegiery describe continual deterioration despite official initiatives. Political repression intensifies and basic freedoms face unprecedented restriction.
Between April 2022 and November 2024, 2,302 political detainees were released but 6,736 were arrested. Egypt ranks sixth globally for imprisoned journalists, with 17 held, some for years without fair trial.
Exceptional trials and restrictive laws
El-Fegiery said 8,000 people were referred to exceptional courts over four months under counterterrorism laws, many for expression and peaceful assembly. He described the new Criminal Procedure Bill as entrenching authoritarianism and weakening fair-trial rights, granting broad prosecution surveillance powers without clear limits.
Enforced disappearance remains systematic. Among those missing is photojournalist and law student Ahmed Hassan Mostafa, arrested in April 2019. Rights reports document increasing deaths from medical neglect and harsh treatment, alongside hunger strikes and suicide attempts under inhuman conditions.
The military and presidency monopolize politics, marginalizing independent alternatives. Ahmed El-Tantawy and Yahya Hussein Abdel Hady were arrested after opposing state policies. Journalist Hisham Kassem left Egypt following prosecutions over critical opinions.
El-Fegiery urged a firmer EU position: overlooking repression for economic and security cooperation will not deliver real stability. Assistance should depend on measurable rights progress; unconditional funding reinforces impunity.
He called for clear benchmarks before aid payments, review ensuring EU support does not fund repression, and pressure to release political prisoners and journalists and end exceptional trials.
“Their Money Is Our Spoils”: threats to companies and local investment under counterterrorism
The Egyptian Front for Human Rights published “Their Money Is Our Spoils: Threatening Companies and Local Investment under the Guise of the War on Terror”, examining private companies, assets and property targeted since counterterrorism policies began in 2013.
Freezing companies and funds became central to policies against the Muslim Brotherhood, its members and others considered associated or aligned. It recalled politically driven appropriation of private property in earlier decades after the republic’s founding in 1952.
Exceptional counterterrorism measures now reach far beyond political Islam and threaten business and domestic investment broadly. The report analyses laws and court procedures giving security agencies unrestricted, unaccountable access to private-company financial information, often based only on suspicion and breaching financial-data confidentiality.
It examines the Anti-Money Laundering and Counterterrorism Financing Unit, administrative and judicial seizure committees and security agencies. Legal analysis is paired with 2013–2024 testimonies from owners, relatives and employees describing seizures and severe legal and financial consequences for businesses and individuals.
The report argues that unlawful, unconstitutional targeting seeks to address financial crises and reshape markets according to authorities’ preferences, violating free-market principles, labour law and rights. It impedes global economic integration and international commitments, worsens the domestic crisis and makes Egypt unsafe for investment. It urges Egypt and international partners to correct abuses and keep state, especially security, agencies within their mandates.
Pretrial detention
EIPR reported renewed detention of an Ahmed El-Tantawy campaign member and five others, including a doctor and contractor, over personal social-media opinions.
On February 10, Cairo Criminal Court renewed 22-year-old conscript Sherif Ahmed Ibrahim’s detention for 45 days in Supreme State Security case 2064/2023. Charged with terrorist-group membership, false news and using an online account for an offence, he was arrested August 31, 2023, after helping a police officer film and publish a TikTok video insulting the Interior Ministry. The officer was arrested in the same case.
AFTE said that on February 11 the court renewed four defendants’ detention for 45 days in case 3434/2024: Mohamed Magdy Abdel Fattah, accused of terrorist-group membership and false news; Magdy Mohamed Mohamed Awad and Islam Mahmoud Abdel Aziz Aboul Seoud, arrested over July 12 protest calls; and student Abdelrahman Safwat Mohamedein Hammad, arrested at home July 12, 2024, over protest calls, a Gaza-support video and economic posts.
The court also renewed five citizens’ detention in February following arrests last year over political and economic opinions online, with false-news and terrorist-group charges.
The Egyptian Network for Human Rights reported 42-year-old advocate Marwa Samy Abou Zeid Abdo’s detention renewed on February 24 for 15 days in case 7887/2024, over false news and financing prohibited entities.
She was arrested at Cairo airport while preparing to travel to Saudi Arabia for Umrah, without a legal explanation, and forcibly disappeared for two days before appearing before State Security prosecutors.
The network said she and her husband Abdelrahman Mohamed Hassan Daby have endured grave abuses over ten years. Arrested in April 2014 in a political protest case, he is serving life imprisonment, denied visits for prolonged periods, tortured and held in harsh solitary confinement across several facilities.
Recommended reading: Malek Adly: The Pretrial Detention Crisis Does Not Need a National Dialogue (interview).
Enforced disappearance
EIPR urged Interior Minister Mahmoud Tawfik to disclose the whereabouts of 33-year-old software developer Ahmed Bahgat Ezzat Hassan, disappeared for more than nine months, and permit family and lawyer contact. It called on Prosecutor General Mohamed Shawky for an urgent investigation.
Witnesses said plainclothes officers arrested him in the street on May 19, 2024. Police stations denied holding him or having official reports against him. His family contacted the ministry and sent around 18 telegrams without a response.
EIPR also called for investigation of student Hussein Ragab Hussein El-Sharqawi’s unlawful detention beyond 180 days and disappearance since January 27. It described continuing custody as a crime conflicting with constitutional Article 54’s judicial-warrant protections.
The Egyptian Network for Human Rights documented three brothers from Dikirnis, Dakahlia, missing for over seven years without investigation or court appearances. Authorities ignored family complaints.
Khaled Bahaa Ibrahim Mahmoud, 37, a driver and father of four, was arrested June 20, 2017, in Cairo; his phone went off and contact ceased. Despite an in-absentia sentence in military case 137, he has not appeared before investigators. Amr Bahaa Ibrahim Mahmoud, 35, a private driver and father of three, was arrested June 26 in Port Said while driving a white 2017 Toyota Hiace, plate 5127, which also disappeared. Engineer Mohamed Bahaa Ibrahim Mahmoud, 30, was arrested June 28 in New Cairo’s Fifth Settlement.
The network reported a fourth year of disappearance for 64-year-old former Cairo Stadium Authority employee Gaber Mahmoud Ali Mohamed, a Bahtim resident in Shubra El-Kheima. Last seen on El-Shaarawy Street around 9:15 p.m. after evening prayers, he has not appeared before investigators and his fate remains unknown.
It also documented a seventh year of disappearance for Amr Nady Abdo Hussein, 27, a third-year natural-history student in Beni Suef University’s Faculty of Education. Sentenced in absentia in military case 123, he vanished after arrest on campus in November 2017.
Recommended reading: Enforced Disappearance in Egypt: From Shock to Normalization.
Prisons
The Egyptian Network for Human Rights accused Moamen Oweis, investigations chief at Wadi El-Natrun Prison 430, Rehabilitation 8, of severely beating two brothers in criminal cases to force withdrawal of one wife’s complaints about prison abuses, according to her Facebook video appeal.
The network said it had documented many earlier complaints against him without accountability. It urged Sadat prosecutors to investigate urgently and independently and directly oversee prison conditions.
Recommended reading: We Want Our Loved Ones Free: An Initiative by Egypt’s Political Prisoners’ Families.
Women’s rights
Edraak for Development and Equality affirmed that women’s rights and protection are fundamental, not luxuries or postponable demands. Its violence observatory recorded 72 attempted killings by relatives, mostly husbands, in 2023, and 300 domestic-violence killings of women and girls. In 2024 it recorded 261 killings by relatives, current or former husbands or partners, including two outside Egypt.
The Cairo Foundation for Development and Law demanded repeal of Penal Code Article 60, which enables impunity in violence against women and children, and a unified law criminalizing violence against women, girls and children.
Despite protective amendments, Egypt lacks comprehensive domestic-violence law. The Penal Code’s philosophy treats family context as a reason to remove or reduce punishment. Child marriage, confinement at home, physical assault and marital rape remain without clear criminalization, often ending in killing or suicide. Family pressure, stigma and inadequate reporting and protection force women to endure violence without safe alternatives.
Its statement called for a comprehensive law covering physical and psychological violence, harassment and marital rape, with procedures and penalties; legislation aligned with constitutional non-discrimination; repeal of Articles 60 and 17 in domestic-violence cases; better investigations and prosecutions; expanded shelters; research and statistics; and public awareness.
Director and rights lawyer Entissar El-Saeed told Zawia3 rising violence is a dangerous sign of suffering, low awareness and absent justice. Long-term physical and psychological harm affects families and development. Legal implementation remains obstructed by discrimination and social resistance to reporting.
She urged enforcement, awareness, psychological and legal support, educational and media promotion of equality, and men’s involvement in changing harmful attitudes. Article 60 legitimizes family violence through a guardian’s claimed disciplinary right under Islamic law.
The foundation works in a unified-law task force on protection and prevention, shelters, referral systems, psychological support, restorative justice, reparations, compensation and accountability for negligent officials.
The Sout Initiative for Women’s Rights concluded “Outside the Herd,” launched for the February 6 International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. It addressed harms, including to girls with disabilities, stressing that FGM has neither religious justification nor medical need. Testimony and expressive images challenged cultural inheritance and parental or grandparental compliance at the expense of powerless girls.
Its statement urged reporting actual and attempted FGM, intensive village and school awareness, stronger involvement by National Council for Women partner organizations, follow-up on complaints, psychological rehabilitation for survivors and prospective brides in public facilities and safe-women units, and strict accountability, especially for medical practitioners.
Barah Amen launched “Words Make a Difference” for February 6, collecting testimonies from women who experienced or witnessed FGM for awareness of its physical and psychological effects.
Edraak concluded “Your Safety Is Your Right”, held February 7–13, 2025, for Safer Internet Day under its “Safe Connection” project. It covered digital violence, prevention, data protection and reporting, affirming safe internet use for women, girls and children and comprehensive, sustainable community action.
On February 20, women’s groups issued a “Justice for Aya” statement, demanding investigation of a possible brutal killing. Aya Adel died at 1:59 p.m. on Friday, February 14, after falling from her seventh-floor home in Jordan, where she lived with her husband following her father’s death and her mother’s chronic illness.
The preliminary forensic report in Jordanian criminal investigation case 537/2025 attributed death to the fall, but her family demanded a murder investigation. Her husband had been accused of beating and injury two days earlier. The report described injuries preceding the fall: a forehead cut, skull fracture, severe bleeding and violent blows to the left thigh and leg with a blunt object such as an iron rod. Neighbours testified to earlier torture, and he was detained on those charges.
The statement questioned the husband’s Facebook account of suicide or accident. It described a repeated pattern of partner violence, including his earlier Russian wife and Bosnian partner who fled allegedly lethal violence. Family, neighbours and friends said Aya sought escape through employment, artistic activities and renting another home. She was preparing food for her children when she died, challenging his claim of a planned suicide.
The Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance Foundation announced an independent committee investigating harassment allegations against a lawyer who joined in October 2024. Its statement said three complaints and several testimonies arrived during the week.
The proposed committee comprised lawyers Mahienour El-Massry and Mohamed El-Baqer and feminist advocate Lobna Darwish. Two complainants and the accused approved; the third complainant had not replied despite three reminder emails.
On February 14, 2025, lawyer Nesma El-Khatib posted allegations against a person identified as “R.M.”, without naming affected women, tagging two foundation programme directors. Further posts and comments followed.
The foundation immediately contacted her and confirmed the person was a recently appointed lawyer. Contact with a commenter on the post established a close connection with the main complainant. It requested formal email complaints with full confidentiality; the first arrived around 10:30 that evening.
The foundation suspended the lawyer and removed him from work groups on February 14, notifying him by email on Sunday, February 16, the next working day. It pledged to publish findings while protecting complainants’ and witnesses’ identities.
Recommended reading: A Deep Wound Destroying Women’s Lives: Digital Violence and Defamation in Egypt and Violent Crime in Egypt: Economic Crisis and Social Breakdown.
Refugee rights
Seven Egyptian rights organizations, including Refugees Platform in Egypt, condemned President Donald Trump’s January 26, 2025 proposal to move more than a million Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt, Jordan and other countries. They described it as dangerous, contrary to international law, inciting ethnic cleansing and war crimes and confirming US complicity in Israel’s war crimes.
The platform reported the deaths of three Egyptian mothers and four children during a dangerous irregular family-reunification journey after the United States refused regular visas.
Raafat Azab, father of 28-year-old victim Mirna, said she was a public-hospital nurse who repeatedly tried legal travel unsuccessfully before choosing an irregular route. Both daughters travelled with her. One drowned alongside her; the other was rescued and taken to an island with Red Cross assistance, awaiting attempts to enter the United States.
