Jump to content

Laila Soueif

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Laila Soueif
Soueif with her daughter Mona Seif
Born1956 (age 68–69)
London, England, UK
NationalityEgyptian and British
Alma materCairo University
Occupation(s)Mathematician, academic, human and women's rights activist
SpouseAhmed Seif El-Islam
ChildrenAlaa Abd El-Fattah
Mona Seif
Sanaa Seif
RelativesAhdaf Soueif (sister)

Laila Soueif (Arabic: ليلى سويف; born 1956) is an Egyptian human and women's rights activist, a mathematician and professor at Cairo University. She is the widow of fellow activist Ahmed Seif El-Islam, and all three of their children are noted activists: Alaa Abd El-Fattah, Sanaa Seif, and Mona Seif. Her sister is the novelist Ahdaf Soueif.

Early life and education

[edit]

Laila Soueif was born in London, England,[1] in 1956, the daughter of university professors.[2] She went to her first political protest in 1972 in Cairo's Tahrir Square, when she was just 16.[2] Two hours later her parents tracked her down and brought her home, "From that, I learned that it was easier to defy the state than to defy my parents".[2]

Soueif studied mathematics at Cairo University in the mid-1970s.[2]

Career

[edit]

As of 2014 Soueif was a professor of mathematics at Cairo University.[3][4]

She is the founder of the 9 March Professors' Movement for Universities Independence.[3]

Activism

[edit]

In June 2014, Soueif's son, blogger and dissident Alaa Abd El-Fattah, along with 24 others, was sentenced in absentia to 15 years imprisonment, on counts of violating the new Protest Law. In October 2014, the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced her daughter Sanaa Seif and 22 others to three years in prison on similar charges. In early September 2014, Soueif and her daughter Mona Seif embarked on a hunger strike in protest against the imprisonment of Abd El-Fattah and Sanaa Seif. On 19 November Soueif and Mona Seif ended their 76-day hunger strike.[3]

In December 2021 Abd El-Fattah was sent to prison in Egypt for spreading "false news undermining national security".[5][6] On 30 September 2024,[7] after Egyptian authorities did not release her son at the end of his sentence on 29 September 2024,[8] but instead pushed the release date to 2027,[9] Soueif began a daily hunger strike outside the UK government's Foreign Office in Westminster, chalking on the pavement the number of days of her son's illegal imprisonment.[10] She has been surviving on water, rehydration salts, and sugarless tea and coffee, and spends an hour each day outside 10 Downing Street. She was joined in mid-January 2025 by Australian journalist Peter Greste, who had been imprisoned in Egypt with Abd El-Fattah in 2013, for a 21-day hunger strike.[11][7]

Recognition

[edit]

In a 2011 feature on Soueif, Al Jazeera called her "one of the true heroines of the [Egyptian] revolution".[4]

Personal life

[edit]

Soueif met her future husband, Ahmed Seif El-Islam, while at Cairo University in the mid-1970s, where he was already the "leader of an underground communist student cell calling for revolution".[2] They were married until his death in 2014.[citation needed]

Owing to her birth in the United Kingdom, Soueif holds both Egyptian and British citizenship.[1]

They are the parents of the activists Alaa Abd El-Fattah, Sanaa Seif and Mona Seif.[12][4] Her sister is the novelist Ahdaf Soueif.[13]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Trew, Bel (2 May 2022). "British citizen on hunger strike in Egypt jail says farewell to family". The Independent. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d e Anderson, Scott (15 August 2016). "Egypt Away from Divisions and Fracturing Scenarios". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 November 2017. Retrieved 12 November 2017 – via ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive.
  3. ^ a b c Nader, Aya (19 November 2014). "Activists Mona and Laila Seif end hunger strike". Daily News Egypt. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  4. ^ a b c "An Egyptian revolutionary". www.aljazeera.com. 16 March 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2017. A woman who relentlessly campaigned for justice for over 30 years is one of the true heroines of the revolution
  5. ^ "Alaa Abdel Fattah: Leading Egyptian activist jailed for five years". BBC News. 20 December 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  6. ^ "Egypt jails leading activist Alaa Abdel Fattah for five years". Al Jazeera. 20 December 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  7. ^ a b Ford, Mazoe (25 January 2025). "Australian journalist Peter Greste on hunger strike for political prisoner who saved his life". ABC News. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  8. ^ "Egypt: Lawyer fears activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah will be held beyond prison release date". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
  9. ^ "Egypt refuses to free jailed activist Alaa Abdel Fattah: sister". Yahoo News. 29 September 2024. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
  10. ^ Wintour, Patrick (15 December 2024). "Alaa Abd el-Fattah: mother on hunger strike takes protest to Westminster". The Guardian.
  11. ^ Greste, Peter (15 January 2025). "I owe Alaa Abd el-Fattah my life, which is why I am going on a hunger strike to help free him". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  12. ^ "Family of jailed Egypt activists on hunger strike". timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  13. ^ Scott Anderson (4 May 2017). Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart. Pan Macmillan. p. 48. ISBN 978-1-5098-5272-7. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
[edit]
Retrieved from "http://en.wiki.x.io/w/index.php?title=Laila_Soueif&oldid=1271840190"