The View from a Drawbridge

Here’s what’s sad. I’m willing to bet that 99 Americans out of 100 have never heard of Mehinour el-Masry, a brave human rights protester who has been jailed by the Egyptian government for exercising what we would consider to be her basic human right to free speech. I only heard of her the other day on the Daily Show, and became curious.

el-Masry was demonstrating outside the trial regarding the murder of Khaled Said, whose death helped spark the Egyptian uprising of 2011. (It is said that he was brutally beaten to death by plain clothes policemen.) Simply by organizing this protest, Ms. el-Masry broke Egypt’s repressive protests law. Now she joins an estimated 16,000 to 41,000 political prisoners who have caused Egyptian prisons to burst at the seams due to the sheer weight of human rights violations.

The last place you ever want to be is in an Egyptian prison. Especially if you are a woman. el-Masry has already experienced beatings and interrogations, and can look forward to being tortured and raped by her captors repeatedly during her two year stay. All for expressing her opinion in public. If that were me, I’d be long dead by now because it never occurs to me to censor myself. I’ve never had to do so. Speaking one’s mind shouldn’t be a luxury.

And who knows what else is in store for her now that she is the ward of an insane state? On April 28^th of this year, one Egyptian judge condemned 720 people to death without hearing any witnesses or allowing any lawyers to speak. 720 people. Condemned to death. In one working day. I think that would even make the average Nazi blink.

Why is this not all over the news in America? Are our heads buried so deep in our Starbucks Caramel Macchiatos that we don’t realize there are people in the world engaged in life and death struggles? Are we worried about mussing up our manicures if we sign a petition? It boggles the mind.

To learn what you can do to help Mahinour el-Masry and bear witness to other acts of repression by the Egyptian government, visit the Egypt Solidarity website here.