IFEX's Regional Editor Naseem Tarawnah reflects on a year in the MENA region with more than its share of dark stories, but shares reasons for hope grounded in the work of civil society - persistent, collaborative, strategic - and effective.
Pressure is building on the Egyptian government to release British-Egyptian activist, Alaa Abdelfattah as he reaches day four of a thirst strike. At the beginning of this week, Alaa stopped drinkin.
Some 40 community members gathered at Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. on Monday night. Holding candles and signs, they called for the Egyptian military regime to release Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a British Egyptian writer and political prisoner.
Britain and France on Monday raised the case of a dissident hunger striker with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, a day after the jailed activist started refusing water.Alaa Abdel Fattah, a British-Egyptian, stopped drinking water on Sunday to coincide with the opening of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron both met directly with Sisi and upped the pressure for his release, hours after three Egyptian journalists said they had begun their own hunger strikes over his fate.