September 24, 2025, 12:47pm

Image from The Guardian/Reuters

The British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah was reunited with his family on Monday after spending most of the last decade in prison. Abd El-Fattah is one of Egypt’s most prominent writers and dissidents, and a widely known political prisoner. It’s a victory for free speech and a joy for his family. “I cannot believe myself, for sure,” his sister Sanaa Seif said after his release. “I cannot believe that I’m seeing him here at home among us normally. I guess it will feel more real when we go to sleep, wake up and find him present, and when his son arrives here from traveling. I’m really happy.”

Abd El-Fattah’s aunt, the Booker Prize shortlisted writer Ahdaf Soueif, told Democracy Now! the sweet story of finally hearing from her nephew. When news of Abd El-Fattah’s pardon was announced, his sister and mother drove 90 minutes through the desert to the prison to pick him up, and spent all day waiting for him to emerge. Then his aunt Ahdaf got a call from an unknown number, which she ignored like we all do:

At about 11 p.m., I got a phone call from a number that I didn’t recognize. I didn’t answer it. And then I got a message from that same number saying, “Answer me. This is Alaa.” And I couldn’t believe it. So I called him, and he said—he said, “It’s Alaa. It’s Alaa. Ahdaf, I—where are you?” I said, “Where are you?” He said, “Yeah, I’m out. I’m out. I haven’t moved, but where are you?” He said, “I’m outside the house, and I can’t get in. Where’s my mom?” I said, “Well, your mom is at the prison gates waiting for you.” So, anyway, so then we called my brother, who went round and opened, unlocked the door for him. And friends started coming around. And we called Laila and Sanaa, and they turned around and drove back to meet him.

Hours later, the family was finally reunited.

Abd El-Fattah was most recently imprisoned for six years, over a 2019 Facebook post about the death of an inmate. His five year sentence technically ended last year, but the authorities refused to release him. His pardon came after years of pressure on Egypt’s government from his family, that included long hunger strikes by Abd El-Fattah and his mother, Laila Soueif, who is a professor of math at Cairo University.

Abd El-Fattah is also a British national, and the UK government has been lobbying for his release. In The Guardian, Patrick Wintour wrote that “it appears a growing warmth in British-Egyptian official relations—including over how to handle the Palestine question—may have played a role in the [Egyptian] president’s decision.”

This recent imprisonment was far from Abd El-Fattah’s first brush with the authorities. He has been targeted by multiple Egyptian governments on and off for nearly twenty years, starting with his arrest in 2006 while peacefully protesting. Since then, Abd El-Fattah became a leading voice and outspoken thinker during the 2011 Arab Spring in Egypt that brought down Mubarak’s government. His activism and protesting led to repeated harassment and arrest by the subsequent authoritarian leader of Egypt, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

A collection of his writing, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated, was compiled by his friends and family with a wonderful introduction by Naomi Klein. In celebration of Abd El-Fattah’s release, the ebook is currently free at Seven Stories Press. It’s well worth your time as a record of a relentless thinker and advocate, and a true free speech warrior. The book collects his writing, social media posts, and blogging in one English-language volume. Some of the text is selected from his voluminous tweeting live from protests and some of the more recent pieces were written from behind bars. As Klein notes in her introduction, at least one piece was written “in collaboration with another political prisoner, the two men shouting ideas to each other across the dark ward.”

There are still a tremendous number of people locked up for their politics in Egypt—estimates are as high as 20,000-60,000 individuals. Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s freedom means there is one fewer, but as his mom told Democracy Now: “Despite our great joy, the biggest joy is when there are no political prisoners. The big and real joy is when there are no political prisoners.”

Like this:

Like Loading…

The post Writer and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah has been pardoned and freed from prison. ‹ appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Is there a more high-profile political prisoner in Egypt than British-Egyptian writer and software developer Alaa Abd el-Fattah?

In my role as President of English PEN, I see growing international outrage at the injustice of his case, and bear witness to the respect and support for Alaa and his extraordinary family and writing.

Last year, English PEN was honored to name Alaa as our Writer of Courage, selected for the award by the winner of the 2024 PEN Pinter Prize, author Arundhati Roy.

Joining us on that night were many members of Alaa’s family—including his sisters Mona and Sanaa, his young son Khaled, and his aunt, the novelist Ahdaf Soueif, with whom my literary interactions span years.

He should have been celebrating his long-overdue release with his loved ones. Instead, he continued to be held in Wadi al-Natrun prison, in violation of international law.

That night, Alaa was conspicuous in his absence.

Arundhati began her acceptance speech by addressing him directly, despite—or to spite—the miles and the walls of prisons between them:

My greetings to you, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, writer of courage and my fellow awardee. We hoped and prayed that you would be released in September, but the Egyptian government decided that you were too beautiful a writer and too dangerous a thinker to be freed yet. But you are here in this room with us. You are the most important person here. From prison you wrote, “[M]y words lost any power and yet they continued to pour out of me. I still had a voice, even if only a handful would listen.” We are listening, Alaa. Closely.

Two weeks earlier, on September 29, 2024, Alaa had completed his latest unjust prison sentence in Egypt. He had served his full five-year term. He should have been with us in person to accept the award. He should have been celebrating his long-overdue release with his loved ones. Instead, he continued to be held in Wadi al-Natrun prison, in violation of international law.

She would risk her life in the hope of finally seeing him reunited with her grandson Khaled. She would not back down.

The day the Egyptian authorities failed to release Alaa, his mother, the formidable Dr. Laila Soueif, announced a decision that could prove to be both life-changing and life-threatening. She would go on an indefinite hunger strike to pressure the UK government to secure her son’s release. She would risk her life in the hope of finally seeing him reunited with her grandson Khaled. She would not back down.

For months, Laila has continued her strike. She paid daily visits to Downing Street to continue calling on the Prime Minister to do everything possible to free Alaa. Most days, she was joined by a varied group of supporters—family, friends, parliamentarians, NGO representatives, and advocates from across the globe. The calls for urgent action grew louder and louder.

Yet it was not until Laila was first admitted to hospital in February 2025 that the Prime Minister called President Sisi to discuss her son’s release. Following that call, Laila agreed to move to a partial hunger strike of 300 calories a day, to allow more time for negotiations.

On learning that his mother had been hospitalized, Alaa began a hunger strike in prison.

Due to a lack of any concrete progress in the months since, Laila resumed her full strike on May 20, 2025, stating:

I feel in my heart that when I moved to a partial hunger strike, the urgency was taken out of the situation.

Later that week, we once again gathered near Downing Street where, together with fellow writers and activists, we read passages from Alaa’s book You Have Not Yet Been Defeated, for which Naomi Klein wrote a foreword, in solidarity with him and his family.

Though physically fragile, she remained, as ever, resolute.

Laila watched on as we shared her son’s words—incisive, determined, urgent. An excerpt, read by actor and activist Juliet Stevenson, states:

From my mother I inherited […] a love that penetrates the walls of prisons.

As the evening drew to a close, Laila warmly thanked those who had gathered to share and listen to her son’s writing, and to continue calling for his release. Though physically fragile, she remained, as ever, resolute.

A week later, on May 29, Laila was re-admitted to St Thomas’ Hospital in London. I joined a moving candlelit vigil outside, alongside the statue of Mary Seacole. The vigils have continued every evening since and are also taking place around the world—from Paris to Damascus, from Trieste to Tunis.

This global solidarity means the world to Laila, but it is not enough to free her son.

Following her hospitalization, Prime Minister Keir Starmer was again moved to call President Sisi, and yet there has been little sign of any significant progress.

Alaa’s family, campaigners, and parliamentarians are urging the UK government to take more concrete and decisive action—to deploy new and different tools, including amending FCDO travel advice for Egypt and considering sanctions on those responsible for Alaa’s unlawful incarceration.

The UK can, and must, put genuine pressure on the Egyptian authorities to resolve the situation. And they must do so now—to ensure that Alaa is free, and that this extraordinary family’s love for one another no longer needs to penetrate the walls of prisons.

The post On Egypt’s Unjust Incarceration of the Writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah, and the Hunger Strike of Dr. Laila Soueif ‹ appeared first on Our Story Insight.