At this critical time, the Middle East Studies Association of North America and its Committee on Academic Freedom wish to express their profound concern about the severely deteriorating health of the eminent Cairo University Professor of Mathematics and rights activist Laila Soueif, recipient of the 2020 MESA Academic Freedom Award. (See the full text of her award citation here.) Professor Soueif has been on a hunger strike for the past five months to demand the release from detention of her son, writer and activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah. Abdel-Fattah remains behind bars in Egypt despite having completed a five-year prison sentence in what was, by all accounts, a politically motivated case. He was supposed to be released in September 2024.
In solidarity with Professor Soueif, we add our voice to hers and call on Egyptian officials to release Alaa Abdel-Fattah without further delay. We also reiterate our previous calls for President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi to end all violations of academic freedom and freedom of expression, as well as the politically motivated prosecution and imprisonment of scholars and researchers.