Join us on 22 May 2025 at 6pm opposite Downing Street for a vigil in support of unjustly imprisoned writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah and his mother Laila Soueif, both currently on hunger strike.
Fellow writers and activists will read from Alaa’s extraordinary collection You Have Not Yet Been Defeated (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2021) as we continue to call on the UK government to take urgent action to secure his release.
- Margaret Busby
- Selma Dabbagh
- Maureen Freely
- Guy Gunaratne
- Sabrina Mahfouz
- So Mayer
- Chris Power
- Monique Roffey
- Jacqueline Rose
- Juliet Stevenson
Alaa Abd el-Fattah, an Honorary Member of English PEN and the winner of the 2024 PEN Pinter Prize for a Writer of Courage, has been imprisoned in Egypt for much of the last decade. On 29 September 2024 he completed his latest unjust five-year sentence – yet– more than seven months later, he remains in prison.
Since the Egyptian authorities failed to release Alaa in line with international legal norms, Laila Soueif, his 69-year-old mother, has been on hunger strike. Following her hospitalisation in February, Alaa himself began a hunger strike in prison and has undergone medical treatment for severe stomach pains and vomiting as a result. Concerns for both their health and well-being are mounting daily.
While the Prime Minister has pledged to do all he can, months have now passed since he spoke directly with President Sisi about Alaa’s case. Alaa’s family are gravely concerned that there appears to have been no tangible progress towards his release since then.
Please join us at Downing Street to show your support for Alaa Abd el-Fattah and to call on the UK government to do more to ensure that he is released and reunited with his family.