You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

“Nothing Has Changed”: Mother of Jailed Egyptian Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah Resumes Hunger Strike

HeadlineMay 22, 2025

In Britain, Laila Soueif, the mother of imprisoned British Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, has resumed an almost total hunger strike to demand the release of her son. She spoke in front of the prime minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street Tuesday as she applies pressure on the U.K. government to secure the freedom of her son, who is also on hunger strike in an Egyptian prison.

Laila Soueif: “The prime minister made a promise to me and to Parliament to do all he could to free Alaa. A few days ago, my daughter Mona received a truly humane letter from Mr. Starmer, assuring all of my family of his continued support. But for Alaa, sitting in prison, now on hunger strike for 81 days, since the 1st of March, nothing has changed.”

Egyptian authorities have kept Alaa Abd El-Fattah behind bars for most of the past decade over his human rights advocacy.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top