On April 23, 2024, Egyptian security forces attacked a number of female activists and journalists protesting in front of the United Nations office in Cairo, arresting a number of them, before releasing some and keeping others in detention.
The feminists organised a protest in front of the UN Women’s office in Cairo in solidarity with women in Gaza and Sudan.
According to human rights lawyers; The Egyptian authorities arrested 18 people, most of whom are women, and some were simply crossing the street where the protest was held. The State Security Prosecution began investigating them immediately.
Those arrested are Mai al-Mahdi, Farida Wl-Hefni, Rasha Azab, Mahienour al-Masry, Israa Youssef, Hadir Mahdawi, Asmaa Naim, Ilham Aidaros, Lina Ali, Rajia Omran, and Lubna Darwish.
One of the participant, Rasha Azab, who is a journalist and a political, shared a post on X account saying “The Interior Ministry attacked us and confiscated a protester’s mobilephone.”
Women’s groups, including the “Egyptian Women Journalists” movement, called for lighting candles for Gaza and Sudan, and shared a statement earlier this year saying: “A new year is ahead of us, while Gaza is facing war, genocide, and Zionist aggression, and Sudan is also going through a devastating war between armed militia, and where millions of Sudanese are have been displaced escaping oppression and death, and where women’s bodies have turned into a scary battlefield.”
The Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, civil society organisations and political parties in Egypt condemned the arrest of feminist activists, human rights activists and journalists in the protest.
The Freedoms Committee of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate called for “the release of the journalists and all the citizens who were arrested in a peaceful protest they organised in front of the United Nations headquarters, in rejection of the international failure in dealing with the Zionist entity’s aggression on our people in Gaza, especially the violations that women are exposed to in Gaza, and in Sudan, amidst international silence.”
“5 male and female journalists who are members of the union have been arrested including Iman Auf, Rasha Azab, Hadeer Al-Mahdawi, and Youssef Shaaban, in addition to journalist Muhammad Farag, who was arrested while he was passing by to pick up his children from school”, adding that supporting the Palestinian people and the Sudanese people cannot in any way be considered a crime.
The international community and human rights organisations should intervene to pressure the Egyptian authorities to adhere to international human rights standards and refrain from arbitrarily using force against peaceful demonstrators and human rights activists, or arresting them.
The Egyptian authorities are known for arresting thousands of people, in politically motivated arrests, many of whom have been convicted, sentenced in unfair trials, or detained without trial for years on unfounded terrorism-related charges, and held in extremely poor detention conditions.
