10 years after the Arab Spring, this Egyptian family is still being targeted
CBC Radio | Posted: February 15, 2021 10:22 PM | Last Updated: February 15, 2021
Mona Seif's brother and sister are behind bars, but she doesn't regret her family's role in the revolution
Ten years after the Arab Spring, Mona Seif is still intensely worried for her family.
During the 2011 revolution in Egypt, Seif's brother — pro-democracy blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah — was imprisoned for organizing a political protest. Today, he is behind bars again, arrested most recently on unknown charges in September 2019.
Seif's sister, Sanaa, is also in prison, detained last summer on charges of "disseminating false news," "inciting terrorist crimes" and "misuse of social media." Like her brother, she's been jailed multiple times over the last 10 years.
This is what the family has to contend with a decade after the uprising that ousted Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak and promised change.
Still, Seif says she doesn't regret her family's role in the short-lived revolution. Here is part of her conversation with As It Happens host Carol Off.
How is your brother doing now?
Remarkably in spirit, he is doing quite well and far better than I would have expected. And it's quite inspiring.
But he is Maximum Security Prison 2 in Tora, which is known amongst families as Scorpion 2. He is in the worst conditions ever. It's completely run by state security. He is locked in a cell with [two other] inmates. He hasn't been allowed any time out of the cell for the past year and five months.
He's not allowed any time for exercises or walking. He's not allowed any time in the sun. So he hasn't been under the sun for more than a year. He's not allowed hot water to drink or to have a bath. Like, things that seem so simple. And they are available. It's not for, you know, for the lack of availability. They have hot water in the same ward he is in. He's just not allowed to access it.
When we spoke to you back in 2011 ... you were hoping he would be freed soon. All that pressure, all the international attention, on his case. And you thought he might be free in time to see his child born?
He missed the birth of his child, but he was freed right after. But then what I didn't know is that Alaa would become one of the few names ... who would be constantly targeted by any regime that comes in power. And so he'd be back in prison again. And each time he goes back in prison, the conditions are harder or he faces a tougher ordeal.
And it's not just Alaa. My sister Sanaa as well. She's in prison now. This is the third time she goes to prison under [Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-]Sisi's regime.
Why is your sister in prison?
During the lockdown, they stopped visits to all prisons as a precautionary measure against COVID-19. And with Alaa, they decided not to allow us letters or regular correspondence. We couldn't get proper news of how he's doing, especially under the corona[virus]. So ... after, like, months of struggle, we ended up staying in front of the prison and spending the night with my mother, demanding a letter to know how he's doing.
We were violently assaulted on June 22nd in the morning. And Sanaa was abducted the next morning when we were going to the general prosecutor to file a complaint. And she was detained just like thousands of other activists and opposition figures in Egypt and youth who are being charged with a compiled list of ready-made charges of terrorism and supporting terrorism.
We saw her [last week] in court.
When we spoke with you 10 years ago, despite these arrests, you and your whole family, including your mother and father, you were all engaged in this struggle, this revolution, the Arab Spring. There was a bounce still in your step because you thought that you were going to bring change. And yet, [there's been] all this time in prison for members of your family. Your father died without being able to have your sister and brother at his side. How is your mom doing through all this?
She is impressive. She makes it possible for us to go on.
I think she is part of why this regime is completely lashing out at us, because they can't believe that she still has the energy and the strength to stand up against them with her body and her voice.
It's very tough and very bleak, and I think it's very different than 10 years ago because 10 years ago, as you were just saying, there was a balance. We felt empowered. There was a sense of something going to happen, something's going to change to the positive in the future.
Now, we are still going through the same struggle. But I think the feeling and the motivation is different. We are exhausted. We are more angry. We are more fed up. And it's more of a survival thing now, at least for me and my family.
It's not just about bringing change — because I don't know if we are capable of that —but I do not see how else [we can] survive under Sisi's regime any other way. We have to stand out against what they are doing. We have to talk about what's happening to Alaa and Sanaa, and thousands of others who don't get the chance to talk.
But this is your life now, isn't it? I mean, you should be finishing your degree. You should be doing other things. Your family should be together enjoying what you do as a family. And yet this what you do full time, isn't it?
I'm actually a researcher in science. I was supposed to be enrolling and working on a PhD right now. But when Alaa was re-arrested again, even after finishing five years of [his] sentence ... he was tortured. He was stripped of his clothes. He was beaten up. He was blindfolded and threatened.
So it also felt like it's not just a repeat of what happened. It felt like a much tougher dose of injustice we are about to deal with. I suddenly realized I cannot try to maintain and juggle my life and everything with what's happening.
And so, because of the regime, because of ... their brutality, I have become a full-time activist.
I'm grateful to 2011 and everything that happened to me then, and the people I got to know, and the person I got to find in myself. - Mona Seif, Egyptian activist, on the Arab Spring
This is almost, to the day, 10 years ago that Hosni Mubarak stepped down. We spoke to people, many people that day, that week, [about] just how extraordinary it was to be able to do that…. How do you remember feeling that day?
I remember it was such an explosion of happiness.
I was going back towards Tahrir Square and when the news arrived ... and I suddenly started shouting and hugging people around me, and everyone was crying.
I don't know how to say this without sounding so cheesy, but despite what's happening, I'm glad, I'm grateful to 2011 and everything that happened to me then, and the people I got to know, and the person I got to find in myself.
It's just something that we have to finish, something that we have to at least try to finish. And it's harder than we anticipated back then, but it has to be done.
So, Mona, what gives you hope? What helps you to carry on?
If you had asked me this [a few] days ago, I would have said that I no longer operate on hope.
But [now], because Sanaa was in court and it was the final appearance before a court and she asked if she could speak to the judges, and she spoke. And all of a sudden, I was filled with immense love and pride … and maybe hope isn't the right word, but gratitude, that this is where we are right now.
For me, it was such an empowering thing to see that my younger sister, who is 27 years old, was speaking very bravely and very openly.
She also spoke directly to the judges and to the state security prosecution about how she does not understand why is corona turning into an excuse for them to crush political opposition, rather than an opportunity for everyone to come together.
And she was amazing. It was such a proud moment for me. But it also made me feel, not hopeful, but sort of certain that we are so on the right side ... that we have to survive this.
It just felt right.
Written by Sheena Goodyear. Interview produced by Kate Swoger. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.