"Hi, This is State Security"

Posted on By 3arabawy

There is reportedly a bureau at State Security police called the “CounterCommunism and Civil Society Organizations Bureau.” Its officers are assigned with monitoring and cracking down on Marxists and left-wing rights activists. Some of them have been involved in several torture cases of leftist activists, the most recent of which has been Muhammad el-Sharqawi.
There’s hardly a civil society activist that hasn’t received at least a “phone call” from them. Sometimes it’s an “invitation for coffee,” other times it’s direct threats… Whether it’s this or that, the aim obviously is intimidation.
I met today my friend Emad Mubarak, director of the recently launched Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, and the brother of the late legendary left wing lawyer Hisham Mubarak.
Emad was one of the main figures in the Egyptian leftist students scene in the 1990s, and was subject to several incidents of police brutality and detentions. Since his graduation from Ain Shams University’s Faculty of Law, he’s been working as a rights lawyer. Emad has been involved in defending Leftist and Muslim Brothers student activists, labor struggles, and campaigns for rights of detainees from all political tendencies.
Emad met me with a big smile, “I finally received the phone call.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“State Security called me yesterday,” he said.
“What did they want?” I asked.
“They wanted to say Mabrouk (Congrats)!” he said.
“What do you mean?! Are you joking?”
“No no, I swear.”

Rights Lawyer Emad Mubarak عماد مبارك

Emad went on narrating the conversation he had with the State Security officer.
SS: “Who is on the phone?”
Emad: “Are you kidding? You are the one who called. Who is it?”
SS: “This is Ahmad S… from State Security.”
Emad: “How Can I help you?”
SS: “We found your number on the internet, and it was mentioned as a contact number for the Association for the Freedom of Thought and Expression. We wanted to know who this number belonged to.”
Emad: “You mean you have my number, but you can’t get my name from the telephone directory?! Anyways, my name is Emad Mubarak.”
SS: “Oooooh! Emad Mubarak? The brother of Hisham Mubarak? May God bless his soul. He was very respectable.”
Emad: “Hisham was indeed respected by everybody, especially you!” (Hisham had lost one of his ears’ hearing capability, due to brutal torture by SS in 1989.) “Anyways, what do you want?”
SS: “Nothing we just called in to say mabrouk for launching your association.”
Emad: “Thanks, anything else?”
SS: “No, No. We just wanted to say mabrouk.”
Emad: “So do you work at Lazoughly (State Security’s HQ in Downtown Cairo) or Gaber Ibn Hayan (SS HQ in Giza)?”
SS: “Gaber Ibn Hayyan”
(Emad knew the officer was lying, as the number that appeared on his mobile started with a 76…., which meant the caller was making the call from downtown.
Emad: “So you must be ….’s student? (Emad dropped in the name of one of the notorious officers there.)
SS: “Oh, Ah, Yeah, I know him.”
Emad: “Ok, anything else?”
SS: “No, we just wanted to say Mabrouk!”
Emad: “ok, Bye!”
Emad then hung up.
“What a waste of my time and their time,” he told me when I met him today. “They have nothing better else to do. I wonder when they’ll invite me for coffee. I bet soon.”

Rights group condemns discrimination against veiled students

Posted on By 3arabawy

No this is not in France, this is in Egypt…

Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
Press Release- 11 October 2006

Expulsion of Veiled Students from University Hostel Arbitrary and Discriminatory
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) today condemned the decision by Helwan University’s President to expel female students who choose for religious reasons to wear the niqab, or face veil, from the university’s hostel. The EIPR also regretted the statement by the Minister of Higher Education in support of the decision, which violates the constitutional protections of equality, religious freedom and personal liberty.

The only thing worse than the arbitrary interference with women’s right to choose their dress code is to deprive them of government-subsidized accommodation and meals solely on the basis of a decision they made in accordance with their religious beliefs.”

The EIPR rejected the use of security concerns to justify the discriminatory practice, especially since the students pledged to remove the veil for identity checks to female guards at the hostel’s entrance. Other universities still allow veiled students to live in university hostels, as did Helwan University itself before the sudden emergence of “security concerns” this year.

Banning the wearing of the niqab is an illegitimate restriction of the right to manifest one’s religion or belief, enshrined in Article 18 (3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which was ratified by Egypt in 1982. The United Nations committee that monitors the implementation of the Covenant ruled on 18 January 2005 that banning the niqab at universities in Uzbekistan violates the Covenant. The ruling said that “to prevent a person from wearing religious clothing in public or private may constitute a violation of article 18, paragraph 2, which prohibits any coercion that would impair the individual’s freedom to have or adopt a religion.”

Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court (SAD) had annulled in 1989 a decision by Ain Shams University’s President to ban the niqab on campus. However, another panel of the same Court ruled in 1999 in support of a niqab ban imposed by Mansoura University. The SAD’s Chamber for Unification of Principles is currently considering the question in an attempt to establish a legal precedent on niqab restrictions. In February 2005, the EIPR submitted to the SAD a brief on the Egyptian government’s legal obligations under international law to protect women’s freedom to wear the niqab.

Talaat Sadat’s trial postponed

Posted on By 3arabawy

A military tribunal postponed Talaat el-Sadat’s trial to 15 October. The late president’s nephew and member of parliament had his legal immunity lifted, and is being prosecuted on charges of “defaming” Egypt’s almighty army, after he implied there was a conspiracy involving the military and foreign intelligence services to kill his uncle.

Seven Egyptian rights watchdogs denounced the trial yesterday in a statement:

Press Release
10 October 2006
Talaat Sadat’s Statements Are Protected Speech
MP’s Military Trial Violates Constitution and International Law

Seven Egyptian human rights organizations today voiced concern over the decision to strip independent MP Talaat Sadat of his parliamentary immunity and refer him to a military court for statements he made on a television news talk show last week.

The seven rights groups said Sadat’s speculations about those responsible for assassinating his late uncle, former President Anwar Sadat, fall within the scope of the legal protection of freedom of expression guaranteed by the Egyptian Constitution as well as legally binding international treaties ratified by Egypt, namely the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

The organizations also condemned the decision to try Sadat before a military court and reiterated their position that civilians must have the right to a fair trial before civilian courts.
If convicted, Sadat could be sentenced to prison for up to three years. He is charged under two vaguely worded articles of the Penal Code. Article 184 criminalizes insulting “the Parliament,…,the army, courts, authorities or public institutions.” Article 102 bis of the same law punishes “the deliberate circulation of false news, information, data or rumors for the purpose of threatening public security, spreading fear amongst people or causing damage to public interests.”

The human rights groups expressed solidarity with the indicted parliamentarian and called on all supporters of abolishing imprisonment for media charges to follow suite and declare their unconditional support for freedom of expression, regardless of the content of the expressed views. Freedom of expression is a basic requirement for a democratic society and a civil state, the groups added.

Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Nonviolence Studies
Arab Network for Human Rights Information
Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
Egyptian Observatory for Justice and Law
Hisham Mubarak Law Center
Nadim Center for Victims of Violence and Torture