Sanaa Seif in Rome: A mural spotlights 20-year-old activist Sanaa Seif, jailed for three years for holding a peaceful march calling for an end to Egypt’s controversial Protest Law and the release of political prisoners. Sanaa’s mural overlays graffiti at Metropoliz, a former factory that now shelters families in Rome from different countries, and whose complex is covered with graffiti and murals by street artists from around the world. The bird recalls the “spirit of prophecy” and the colorful pattern comes from one of the nobles’ tombs in Luxor’s West Bank. (Photos (c) Ammar Abo Bakr)

السلام عليكم

 

Sanaa Seif ,

You don’t know me, but I know you so well through my friend Dina. In October, Egyptian Court sentenced you to three years in prison, a further three years’ of police monitoring and a fine of more than 10,000 Egyptian Pounds for participating in a demonstration against the 2013 Protest Law on June 21, 2014.

 

We all know how this is a violation of Article 12 of the 1998 United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders which states that: “… everyone is entitled, individually and in association with others, to be protected effectively under national law in reacting against or opposing, through peaceful means, activities and acts, including those by omission, attributable to States that result in violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

 

 

Only last year you were at the Sundance Film Festival, promoting Egypt’s First Oscar nominated documentary film ‘The Square’. I know all about the tears, fears, trauma, heartache, sweat, blood, death of minds, hearts and bodies that went into producing this short documentary on Egypt’s famed Square, Al-Midan.  You worked as an Editor and Shooter for that movie, and In your interview you said, you believed in Director Jehane Noujaim‘s vision of getting the message of the Square out to world masses. All of you behind the Square have been accused of being employed by foreign antigovernment forces, but we know the reality. What went into Square was a dream of believers, who believed in revival of democracy, who wanted to become the backbone of the future Egypt, where future generations didn’t have to fight for survival.

 

 

Last night, I was at the Monthly local Amnesty Meeting. We wrote cards to people who’ve been unjustly incarcerated and are subject to abuse and torture. I wrote a card to a brother in Morocco,
and to women in South Africa. The list was very long. I did not see your name on the list.

I thought, I’ll write you a letter and I’ll share the letter on my Blog. So some who accidentally lands on this blog may take a look at this post and will pray for your release.

Words Fail Me….

When it comes to offering you words of comfort, I fail. I’m an amateur blogger who blogs on Eating Disorders in Muslim World. Many years back, in late 2010, I said Goodbye to Politics and spent my nights and days counting calories and trying to burn off excess fat on my body. I gave up hope of changed world and the only thing I strived to control was myself and number on the scale.

But before I gave up hope of better Pakistan, better world, how can I forget the year 2010 in Beirut, when alongside other young people from MENA (Middle East North Africa)  we all shouted to cameras ‘We are the Change Makers’.

 

Tunisian Youth was the proudest Group there, followed by bemused and brilliant Egypt, Kuwait, Bahrain, Morocco and other  Countries.  Little did we know that one by one, we all will see doom of our countries.

I was in Islamabad interning for a Human Rights organization with a dead mind, when the news of Jasmine revolution reached me.  For a second, just a brief second I felt something and then it was all calm, as I busied myself in planning an extraneous work out  for next 7 days. Within a year the world around me collapsed, and changed and I was untouched, unfazed by all the upheaval.

Eating Disorder Meets Rape Victim

But then something happened, that shook my soul. I was sent to Islamabad High Court to report back on a Rape Case of Mukhtarran Mai. No devices were allowed in the court. It was my fourth day on  starvation diet and my mind was simply dead. As the case unfolded before my eyes, I safely retreated into my Eating Disorder world. The world in that court was in a sharp contrast to the world where I lived in, where only  number on the scale mattered.  It was then a lady wrapped in white Chador (shawl) came and took a seat next to me. All I could see was her fingers moving over the prayer beads . My disordered mind didn’t recognise her, she was the rape victim. As  the lawyers flung mud at each other across the room and simply stripped her of her dignity, the fingers on the prayer beads moved even more swiftly.  It was only after the court was adjourned for the day that I was pulled out of my deep slumberness of disordered world by my boss. I had missed the whole thing. I was seated next to the Mukhtaran Mai and my job was to interact with her, to pick up on her emotions and to get her views on the case. Then on cold limbs I stuttered over to the lady in white to offer her my useless words. I mumbled ‘Aslam ili Kum’, and ‘I’m sorry for the ordeal you’ve been through’ she simply held both my hands and just looked at me and said “Allah does not burden a soul more than it can bare.”

 

Do you know what struck me  most about her? Here a woman was raped by a group of men, paraded around the whole village and while tradition dictates she should commit suicide after such an act, she defied everything and fought the case, despite constant threats to her life. Now she’s an iconic advocate of women’s rights. She has opened a girls’ school and women’s crisis centre.

Ahmed Hulusi said:

The beauty and the perfection of all Creation is directly linked with the fact that it serves the purpose for which it was created.

Always think about the reason why the world was created. Say to yourself: “The reason why I have been created is so that I can be of some purpose some day.”

Today Mukhtaran Mai has given a hope to many hopeless women and has given a message to predators, you can never escape the justice.

In June, 2014, you were arrested, your brother Alaa Abd El-Fattah, Prominent Egyptian blogger was also arrested.  Soon after your arrest, your father, Ahmed Seif El-Islam, a prominent human rights advocate and lawyer passed away. I think the grief of failing Egypt simply killed him. Egyptian authorities allowed you and your brother to visit your comatose father in hospital the week before he died. Very generously the authorities then granted you and your brother a permission to attend your father’s funeral on Aug. 28, 2014. You came out of the prison with your brother, dressed in a prison garb, surrounded by police and there was a look of sheer determination in your eyes.

 

In September Dina, the producer of The Square, your friend, your older sister took a flight out of New York to Stockholm’s to appeal for your release to the media. Soon after, we hear a very sad news of your sentence, your brother was also sentenced to 15 years in prison. It made us lose hope in Justice System.

 

You went on a hunger strike in August. Your brother also began a hunger strike on 18 August to protest his detainment. Your hunger strike hurts many deeply. Deep down, we look at you for courage, we care for you and we believe that you’ll be out soon. There are good people in this world who are working on your case. People are not going to give up on you Sanaa and your brother.

 

Everything in our world has reached a critical juncture. The conflict in Gaza disheartened even the most fervent peace advocates .We all watch in disdain as our leaders descend into political squabbling and recriminations, but we all know that dream of better world is not dead at all. We have to keep hope alive, if we want to survive. So in Summer, I plucked up my courage and participated in protest against conflict in Gaza and then I went back to my local Amnesty Group. Someone said to me, by closing your eyes and by retreating into Eating Disorder world, the reality of life doesn’t change.

Don’t lose hope.

“I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in the darkness, the astonishing light of your own being.” Hafiz