Sanaa Seif is a gentle, soft-spoken, sweet young woman. She is also made of steel. She is a democracy activist in Egypt. She has been imprisoned three times. I spoke with her last week at the Oslo Freedom Forum. We recorded a podcast, a Q&A, here.
Sanaa comes from a family of democracy activists. Her late father, Ahmed Seif, was a human-rights lawyer. Her mother, Laila Soueif, is a professor of mathematics. Her sister, Mona Seif, is a genetics researcher. Her brother, Alaa Abd El-Fattah, is a journalist and software developer. He is also a political prisoner.
The entire family has done incredibly gutsy things. They are a jewel of Egypt.
In our Q&A, I ask Sanaa whether she really had a choice — a choice to opt in or opt out of democracy campaigning. It’s a hard question to answer. You see the examples around you. You may feel an inner compulsion. In any event, says Sanaa, she would probably do it all over again, if she could go back.
When she was 16, she started a newspaper with some friends. There was a brief liberalization in Egypt — a window of opportunity. You could do such things as start a newspaper. Sanaa and her friends called their paper “El-Gornal” — simply, “The Newspaper.” Over half a year, they produced six copies, one per month. It was a bracing, refreshing experience.
In Egypt, under General Sisi, there are 60,000 political prisoners. Routinely, they are tortured. Sometimes they are tortured to death. Shady Habash, a filmmaker, was tortured to death. Giulio Regeni, an Italian Ph.D. student, was tortured to death. Mustafa Kassem, a U.S. citizen, was tortured to death.
Sanaa Seif has been in prison for three years, in total. On what charges? It doesn’t really matter, to the Egyptian state. All you have to do is criticize it, and ask for change. Sanaa was accused of terrorism. That’s what they do — accuse their critics of terrorism.
While in prison in 2014, Sanaa went on a hunger strike, for 72 days. Another of her imprisonments took place during the time of Covid. Sanaa caught it. There were no vaccines, there was no isolation, there were no sanitary measures.
Sanaa says that she was never tortured, physically. She was too “high profile” for that. Agents lay off such prisoners; the state does not want bad publicity. But Sanaa saw and heard torture around her. Also, one time, when she was out of prison, state agents hired civilian thugs to beat up her and her family. This gave the agents a little distance.
Amazingly enough, Sanaa is still based in Cairo. “It’s not easy for me to leave the country I was born and raised in,” she says. “I understand that eventually I have to leave. But I’m hoping to turn that page with all of my family together. So I’m hoping to do that after my brother is released.”
And when will her brother be released? There is no end in sight. Every time one prison term nears its end, they concoct reasons for another term. The family is allowed to see Alaa once a month for 20 minutes behind glass.
Sanaa’s craft is filmmaking — specifically, film editing. When she was a kid, she read a book by an illustrious film editor, Walter Murch. That sent her on her way. During one of her prison terms, her family and friends got filmmakers to sign a petition in her behalf. One of the signers was Walter Murch. He later sent her, in prison, the first chapter of a book he was working on, “which is something that really, really touched me,” Sanaa says.
Obviously, the Egyptian government is a U.S. ally. In 2019, at a G-7 conference, President Trump said, “Where’s my favorite dictator?” He was referring to General Sisi. A month later, Trump and Sisi sat together at the United Nations. Trump said, “It’s an honor to be with my friend. And he is a real leader.” A reporter asked Trump, “Are you worried about demonstrators in Egypt who have been calling for President Sisi to go?” Trump answered, “No. I guess everybody has demonstrations. Even your best friend in the whole world, President Obama: He had a lot of demonstrations. No, I’m not concerned with it. Egypt has a great leader.”
The U.S. sends Egypt $1.3 billion in military aid a year. This aid, says Sanaa Seif, was once meant to help preserve the peace with Israel. “But right now the dynamics are totally different.” The aid “kind of reinforces our oppressor.”
About the Egyptian future, Sanaa is not especially optimistic. But “the dream of seeing democracy in the Middle East is still there,” she says. “Maybe our generation will not make it happen. But I can see that younger generations are inspired by our defeat, and our attempts, and maybe they can make it happen.”
To me, it’s slightly funny to hear Sanaa speak of “younger generations.” She is still in her twenties. She will turn thirty at the end of the year. Does she ever wish life could be normal, humdrum? Without turbulence and drama? “Yeah, all the time,” she says. “I mean, it’s a joke between me and my friends. I can’t wait for life to be boring. I am hoping my thirties will be boring. We’ll see.”
Again, to hear Sanaa Seif in our podcast, go here. I admire her a great deal. I know that others will too — those who have the idea of freedom in their breast.