At just twenty-nine, the young activist Salsabeel El-Gharbawy continues to endure a harrowing cycle of violations that has shadowed her since the earliest days of her political engagement. Her ordeal began on 30 December 2013, when she was only seventeen, after taking part in a demonstration at Al-Azhar University. She was arrested and later released on bail of 1,000 pounds on 12 February 2014.
Salsabeel’s suffering deepened immeasurably following the death of her father in Al-Aqrab Prison in 2018, leaving her to navigate both personal grief and legal persecution from a painfully young age.
On 17 December 2023, at Cairo Airport, Salsabeel was arrested once again. She was subsequently handed a four-year prison sentence. Since then, she has been subjected to enforced disappearance, physical assault, verbal humiliation, and threats of rape and other abuses that amount to grave violations of the most basic rights of detainees, including the right to protection from torture and all forms of inhuman treatment.
These abuses unfold within a broader pattern of sustained repression targeting young activists, particularly women calling for reform and civic participation. Such practices erode the very principle of freedom of expression and strike at academic rights, especially after Salsabeel was expelled from Al-Azhar University for her political activism.
Salsabeel, who still expresses her longing to return home to her family, embodies a stark and painful example of the continuous threats faced by young people who seek to express themselves or engage in public life. Her case reflects the specific vulnerability of women activists, who are subjected to physical and psychological violence, including threats of rape used as tools of coercion and subjugation.
Her experience throws a revealing light on the Egyptian authorities’ failure to safeguard young activists and the absence of effective mechanisms to hold perpetrators accountable, in clear and direct conflict with international law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees personal liberty, freedom of expression, and the right of young people to education and political participation without fear of retaliation.
These practices constitute a systematic assault on independent voices and a flagrant breach of international standards. They demand an immediate end to such violations, full protection for activists, and genuine accountability for all those responsible so that fundamental rights and internationally recognised legal principles may be upheld.
