A family under attack

An Egyptian family that represents the revolution in all its phases; Seif/Soueif family. On Wednesday August 27th, Egypt lost one of its famous human rights defenders lawyers and human rights activists: Mr. Ahmed Seif El Islam Hamad Abdel Fattah.  

Seif/ Soueif family

• The Father

A leading human rights lawyer whose career spanned four decades, Seif el-Islam worked on several of "the most important human rights-related cases in the country", according to Amnesty International.

Originally a leftist , Seif El-Islam defended the rights of people in Egypt since late 1980s. He defended the rights of political detainees whether liberals or Islamists or socialists or Nasserites.

Mr. Seif was a victim of torture himself, he was imprisoned and tortured in the 1980s. He studied law in prison and, after his release, began practicing law and later helped found one of Egypt’s leading human rights organizations, the Hisham Mubarak Law Center.

Mr. Seif was detained four times, and the last detention was for a few days during the 2011 revolution.

A happy picture of Ahmed Seif 

Seif El-Islam died in coma after a cardiac arrest he got following an open heart surgery in Cairo. However, he didn't have his two children - Alaa and Sanaa - beside him on his death bed because they were both imprisoned.

At a news conference in January, Mr. Seif used his family’s story to illustrate the lack of progress in Egypt since the revolution. “Alaa, I wanted you to inherit democratic society that guards your rights,my son, but instead I passed on the prison cell that held me and now holds you,” he said.

• The mother 

Laila Soueif, a mathematics professor at Cairo University. She's a trailblazing figure who has dedicated her life to the struggle for freedom and social justice in Egypt. Her tools are not smart phones or new media, but sheer willpower, fearless tenacity and an unshakable faith in her cause.

She spent years raising her children alone while her husband was in prison. She has braved police batons at countless demonstrations over the years, while her son was also jailed for his activism.

Dr. Laila Soueif participating in a protest

Dr. Laila starts a hunger strike in support with the detainees 

• The son

Alaa Abd El-Fattah; an Egyptian blogger, a software developer and a political activist. He is known for co-founding along with his wife Manal Hassan the Egyptian blog aggregator Manalaa and Omraneya, the first Arab blog aggregators that did not restrict inclusion based on the content of the blog.

A picture of Alaa in 2011

Alaa and Manal 

Alaa Abd El-Fattah has been questioned, arrested and detained on several occasions. He was arrested on 7 May 2006 when demonstrating for independent judiciary and released on 20 June 2006. On 30 October 2011 he was arrested for inciting violence at the 9 October Maspero clashes and released on 25 December 2011. In this period, his son Khaled was born while he was in prison.

On 26 March 2013 he was arrested for inciting aggression during a protest outside Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters, known as the Mokattam Clashes of March 2013 but was later acquitted on all charges.Two days later, on 28 March 2013 he was arrested and charged for torching former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafik’s campaign headquarters on 28 May 2012, and received a suspended 1-year jail term.

On 28 November 2013 he was arrested for rallying, inciting violence, resisting authorities and violating theAnti-protest Law after a demonstration against military trials for civilians outside Shura Council building on 26 November 2013.He was initially released on 23 March 2014 after 115 days in detention. In June 2014 he was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison and detained again awaiting his retrial, during which time he went on a hunger strike. In his retrial on 15 September 2014 he was released on bail.

In that time, Alaa's father passed away. He was able to visit him once in the intensive care and to attend his funeral. However, he was not beside his father in his last days.

Alaa at his father's funeral

On 26 October 2014, Alaa was detained again on the first day of his retrial for breaking the protest law. Until today, he is imprisoned.

• The bigger daughter 

Mona Seif; political activist and the founder of the civil rights campaign “No Military Trials for Civilians".

She is a biology graduate student, working on the BRCA1 breast cancer gene.

Mona is known to be a defender of the detainees' rights. She documents what happens to the detainees and supports them.

 
 She writes in her own blog, or in twitter.

 Mona Seif was among the final candidates for 2012 Front Lin Award for Human Rights Defenders.

• The younger daughter

Sanaa Seif; a 20 years old activist and a student of languages and translation at October University.

She is the editor of the documentary film "The Square".

On June 21st, Sanaa Seif has been imprisoned for demonstrating against the unjust conviction of her brother Alaa Abdel Fattah.

On August 28, Sanaa Seif decided to begin the hunger strike after seeing her father in a coma during the authorized visit.

“It was then that she realised more and more the extent of oppression that thousands of detainees and families are exposed to in silence and away from the attention of most people,” her sister Mona Seif wrote.

Sanaa with her brother Alaa at their father's funeral

On October 26,Sanaa and the other 22 detainees with her were sentenced to three years in prison and a 10.000 L.E. fine.

She's still in prison until now.