A series of actions have been called in support of the campaign to free imprisoned writer, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, from prison in Egypt. Alaa is arguably the most high-profile political prisoner in Egypt, if not the Arab world, rising to international prominence during the revolution of 2011. He has been in prison for over 10 years. On 29 September 2024 he completed a five-year sentence for a Facebook post – but was still not released from prison, where he is now. Even though he is a British citizen, the Egyptian government will not even allow consular access.
On 29 September last year, his mother Laila Soueif (also British-Egyptian, and living in between London and Cairo) started a hunger strike in protest at his continuing imprisonment. On 28 February 2025, 153 days into Laila’s hunger strike, and three days after she was hospitalised at Thomas’ Hospital in London, Prime Minister Keir Starmer finally managed to speak to President Sisi about Alaa’s case. After that ‘breakthrough’ call between Starmer and Sisi, Laila reduced her hunger strike to 300 calories per day. Nothing has happened since.
Meanwhile, Alaa himself has been on hunger strike in prison for 80 days and is in poor health. Given that Laila was on full hunger strike for 153 days, and has spent 83 days on a partial hunger strike, she is very weak, and is considering escalating to a full hunger strike if Alaa’s case remains in limbo. Alaa’s health is also a concern, since hunger striking in prison, with poor medical facilities, and after having spent over a decade in prison, is very dangerous.
There is an English PEN demo at Downing Street at 6pm on 22 May 2025 that we should all support. We are also asked to join Laila outside Downing Street one day in the coming two weeks. From Monday May 19 she will stand for one hour, 10am to 11am, outside the Prime Minister’s office, asking for him to intervene to save her son. The campaign is inviting writers, actors, journalists and artists to come and stand with her for a few minutes and take a picture. Culture Matters supporters should attend any event they can, but we are particularly calling on Culture Matters writers and contributors to join Laila on 27th May 2025 from 10am-11am at Downing Street, to show solidarity with her and with Alaa.
