This Jailed Egyptian Activist’s Mother Is In Critical Condition After A 250-Day Hunger Strike To Demand His Release
Soueif herself resumed a full hunger strike on May 20, saying, “Nothing has changed, nothing is happening.”
The mother of notable pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah is in critical condition after she went on a hunger strike to demand her son’s release.
43-year-old Abd El-Fattah became a leading voice in the Egyptian revolution in 2011, rising to prominence for his role in the protests and documenting events despite government crackdowns.
He had been arrested repeatedly since 2006 but in 2019 he was detained by Egyptian authorities for “spreading false news” after he posted a Facebook post criticizing prison conditions and later sentenced to five years in prison in 2021.
He was supposed to be released on Sept. 29, 2024, but Egyptian authorities refused to let him go, saying that the two-years he spent in detention before his trial did not count and extending his release date to 2027.
His mother, 69-year-old Laila Soueif, began a hunger strike days later on Sept. 30.
In February, she was hospitalized and changed to a partial hunger strike after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised to contact Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and call for her son’s release.
After learning that his mother was hospitalized, Abd El-Fattah also began his own hunger strike in March 2025, having already gone on a hunger strike from April to November 2022.
Soueif herself resumed a full hunger strike on May 20, saying, “Nothing has changed, nothing is happening.”
On May 26, she was hospitalized in London after 242 days of hunger strike, which had left her weighing around 49 kg, almost half of her original body weight.
Her family has said she is in critical condition.
“I have never seen [the UK government] act as if the situation was urgent, except when I was hospitalized,” Soueif explained her strike, according to the Guardian, “We need Alaa released now.”
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Kassy Cho
Kassy Cho
