Looking small and thin, and sounding weak yet utterly resolute, British-born Egyptian academic and human rights activist Laila Soueif leant on a railing at the entrance to Downing Street on Tuesday in the full glare of London’s May sunshine.
Ms Soueif (69) has been protesting for months against the detention of her son Alaa Abd El-Fattah by the Egyptian authorities.
He is a writer and, like his late father Ahmed Seif El-Islam, a human-rights activist who has protested against a lack of freedoms in his home country.
The regime jailed him in 2019 for “spreading fake news”, following a previous five-year stint in prison from 2014.
His mother had started a full hunger strike in September, when the family had originally expected him to be released at the end of his five-year sentence. The Egyptian authorities, however, refused to release him, saying he must stay in prison until 2027 because his two years of pretrial incarceration did not count towards time served. His family says this is illegal.
Ms Soueif moved to a partial protest – 300 calories a day, the equivalent of a small bowl of soup – in February when UK prime minister Keir Starmer spoke on the family’s behalf to Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Her imprisoned son is a dual British-Egyptian citizen. Mr Starmer has promised to help secure his release, but so far to no avail.
In March, Ms Soueif was taken to hospital after she became dangerously weak.
After months of no progress in negotiations between British and Egyptian officials, Ms Soueif on Tuesday declared she was returning to a full hunger strike.
“Zero calories,” she said, at the entrance to Downing Street. “I feel in my heart that that when I moved to a partial hunger strike [in February], the urgency was taken out of the situation. The British and Egyptian authorities felt they could take their time.”
How far is she prepared to take her protest this time?
Ms Soueif, a tiny woman, seemed to summon all her strength as she peered over her glasses to deliver her defiant response: “I will continue to the end, whether that is my collapse or Alaa’s release.”
The family recently wrote to the UK government urging it to take Egypt to the International Court of Justice if it continued to refuse to release Mr Abd El-Fattah, who is also on hunger strike in Egyptian prison. He began his protest in March when his mother was hospitalised.
But the family has yet to receive any response.
“Time is running out for them,” said Fiona O’Brien, country director in the UK for Reporters Without Borders, which is supporting the family in its campaign for Abd El-Fattah’s release.
Ms Soueif said: “I’m conscious that things are no longer in my hands. But we need Alaa to be freed. We need him here with us.”
