A group of us are banned from entering Egypt
My friend Mohammed, who was one of the three protesters who took part in our small protest for Kareem, was accompanied by police and security forces in Egypt until he got sent back to Bahrain. An HRINFO representative claims that this happened because of his involvement in the Free Kareem protest. Others, including both Marwa and I, the other 2 protesters, think it has to do with his human rights activities which he often leads.
Read the details here (in Arabic.) HRINFO will soon publish a press release to protest this.
The claim remains that Marwa and I are also denied entry to Egypt because of this. However, we are doubting it. Maybe I would have a bigger role since I lead the Free Kareem campaign, but Marwa is most definitely off the hook.
Egypt’s treatment of human rights activists is truly horrific, and before they continue claiming that these activists are “tarnishing the country’s reputation,” they should think twice about their actions that receive international coverage. Every time they silence a blogger, or activist, they are doing a big mistake and we should help them realize it.
Mohammed won’t give up, so if they were trying to threaten him through this, it doesn’t work. He is very much used to threats and has a history of experiencing these misfortunes, but luckily, he’s too brave and determined to ever let such things get in the way of his activist work. And this, my friends, is how activism should work. You don’t give up. You risk it all, every single day.
May God bless everyone who continues to work for the right causes.
Join the Conversation
This is terrible news, but are you surprised? Just yesterday they announced they would charge Howayda Taha with “harming the national image” because she was doing a documentary on torture… rather than stop the torture, they prefer to pretend it doesn’t exist.
First, is Mohammed Egyptian or Bahraini? If he is from Bahrain, then the Bahraini government, since it is a government for Bahrainis, should inquire Egypt’s decision into denying its citizens travel rights, and object to them. I know, this is probably a fantasy: but if there is any way of integrating such a call into whatever press release HRinfo creates, then at least when they ignore it, we have one more evidence that they just don’t care.
Mohammed is Bahraini, but he is more in trouble with the Bahraini government than the Egyptian one, so I wouldn’t count on it. That’s why human rights activists in the Middle East go through the most horrid experiences. Many just disappear, or are threatened too much to the point where they have no choice but to give up.
He should be in Bahrain by now. Last time we checked, he was with police and security forces waiting to be sent back. We think this has to do with his activist work rather than the Free Kareem protest that we lead, but HRINFO seems to think otherwise!
Always, the solution for this kind of problem is transparency and attention and publicity. The more information you can keep disseminating while this thing is IN PROGRESS, the better.
Now you guys are famous thanks to the Egyptian government’s stupidity. With fame comes greater power. Weeeeee
He was deported after 14 hours of hell in the Cairo airport, by the way. So it wasn’t an easy come-and-go. I’m sure that he’s too exhausted to explain it all by now.
Take a look, if you can…at Fear No Evil by Nathan Sharansky
As expected, this doesn’t have much to do with the Kareem protest. This is what the very recent article in the GDN says -
Source.
And this is the HRINFO article, which maintain their stance that this has something to do with the Kareem protest:
Read full article in English here, and in Arabic here.
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