Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif brought up the cases of Egyptian and Emirati political prisoners during her talk at the Hay festival in Abu Dhabi on 26 February (Facebook/@AhdafSoueif)
Middel Eastern Eye reported on 28 February 2020 that the well-known Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif has used her appearance at the inaugural Hay festival in Abu Dhabi to speak out against human rights abuses in Egypt and the United Arab Emir During a conversation with Peter Florence on Wednesday, Soueif told attendees that two Emirati human rights activists could have been in attendance had they not been unjustly jailed. The novelist, who founded the Palestinian Festival of Literature in 2008, said she wanted to speak about those “who have lost their liberty simply because of their insistence on their right to freedom of expression and their support for the principles of human rights”. Among those jailed in the UAE for exercising their right to free speech is poet and activist Ahmed Mansoor, and jurist Mohammed al-Rukun.
“It’s very easy for cultural events to become smokescreens,” Soueif said, remembering her own nephew, Alaa Abdel Fattah, who is currently in jail in Egypt on charges linked to his human rights activism. [see https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/10/19/egypt-all-you-can-think-of-widespread-arrests-torture-allegations-cyber-attacks/]
A letter signed by the festival’s president Stephen Fry, and more than 40 public figures and organisations castigated Emirati authorities for continuing to incarcerate citizens for expressing their views. See: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2020/02/26/hay-festival-in-emirates-promotes-freedom-of-expression-but-not-for-its-citizens/.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 