Galal El-Behairy is a poet, lyricist, and activist who has been in prison since March 2018. He has published three poetry collections: Masna’a El Karasy (The Chair Factory, 2015),Segn Bel Alwan (Colourful Prison, 2017), and The Finest Women on Earth (2018).
In 2018, he was repeatedly targeted for his latest poetry collection and his collaboration on a protest song “Balaha.” El-Behairy was detained and forcibly disappeared five days after the song’s release and sentenced to three years in prison for ‘spreading false news’ about the State and Egyptian army in The Finest Women on Earth.
Despite completing his sentence in 2021, El-Behairy was not released. Instead, he was subjected to enforced disappearance for three weeks before being arbitrarily detained for a further two years, during which he was reportedly beaten and tortured. On 5 September 2023, El-Behairy reached the maximum legal limit of pre-trial detention yet continued to be held without trial or access to necessary medical and legal care.
In August 2025, the Egyptian authorities brought new charges against El-Behairy. El-Behairy has been on multiple hunger strikes throughout his detention, demanding medical treatment, family visits and access to pens and paper. In September 2025, he attempted to commit suicide.
Galal El-Behairy was awarded the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write award in 2025 by PEN America. PEN continues to hold Egyptian authorities fully responsible for El-Behairy’s physical and mental health and calls for all charges against him to be immediately dropped.
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Background
Galal El-Behairy, an Egyptian poet and lyricist, has been held in detention since 5 March 2018. He initially faced charges of ‘joining a terrorist group’, ‘disseminating false news’, and ‘insulting the President’ for lyrics he had written for the song Balaha, which was performed and disseminated online by exiled Egyptian singer Ramy Essam. The case was eventually dropped, but he remained in detention.
In a separate case, on 31 July 2018, El-Behairy was sentenced to three years imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 Egyptian Pounds by a military court on charges of ‘disseminating false news and rumours about the Egyptian armed forces’, and ‘insulting the Egyptian army’ in his poetry collection The Finest Women on Earth.
In July 2021, El-Behairy completed his three-year prison term. However, rather than being released, he was instead subjected to enforced disappearance for three weeks and kept under indefinitely renewed pre-trial detention. His re-arrest reflects a broader pattern of ‘rotation,’ a tactic used by Egyptian authorities to circumvent legal limits on pretrial detention and prolong the imprisonment of political dissidents.
Galal El-Behairy has gone on hunger strike on multiple occasions to protest his ongoing and unlawful detention, including to mark the fifth anniversary of his arrest in March 2023:
“Five years have passed .. five years if we tried to take them apart, they would equal 1800 days and more. This could be just a regular number among the numbers, but when it becomes leaves falling from your life-trees, it becomes demonic and frightening.
In the past, I used to know that if one’s wallet or car was stolen, they would go to the nearest police station and get help. But I do not know who would help [those] whose life is being stolen.
Today, I decided to practice my constitutional and human right to protest this inhumane situation by starting a hunger strike. First, I will refrain from taking food, my heart medication and antidepressants, and gradually I will refrain from drinking water.
The strike will continue until I regain my freedom, either alive or dead.”
On 9 September 2023, just days after reaching the maximum two-year limit of pre-trial detention, Galal El-Behairy survived a suicide attempt. In December, PEN International learned that prison authorities had confiscated his reading and writing materials.
El-Behairy’s family has informed PEN International that his health has significantly deteriorated due to his imprisonment, poor prison conditions, lack of adequate medical care, and prolonged hunger strikes. He suffers from high blood pressure, joint pain, and heart problems, while his mental health has severely deteriorated in recent years.
PEN remains deeply concerned for his health and well-being. We continue to urge the Egyptian authorities to release him and other writers detained in Egypt immediately and unconditionally.
Photo credit: Private collection.
