Jadaliyya and the Arabic Hour collaborated to discuss the issue of political prisoners in Egypt with a particular focus on Ramy Shaath in a conversation featuring Celine Lebrun Shaath, Hussein Baoumi, and moderated by Jadaliyya co-editor Noura Erakat. Shaath is an Egyptian Citizen of Palestinian origin and is a well-known political figure and Human Rights defender on behalf of Egyptian and Palestinian political and human rights. He was arrested on July 5, 2019 and has been held in the notorious Tora Prison in Cairo. Ramy is among dozens of political prisoners in Egypt who have been targeted by the Abdel Fatah al Sisi government. This segment explores Shaath’s case and the broader Egyptian and regional context of political prisoners. Click here to learn more about Ramy Shaath's case.
Speakers
Celine Lebrun Shaath is a political researcher, educator, and community organizer. Her husband is Ramy Shaath, and she has been leading an international campaign from France, her home country, for his release from Egypt’s Tora Prison since his arrest. Celine was deported from Egypt at the time of her husband’s arrest. She holds an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, 2017.
Hussein Baoumi is an Amnesty International Egypt and Libya researcher. He researches human rights violations, plans and conducts advocacy programs, plans and implements global campaigns, engages with media, and supports Amnesty International's growth in Egypt. He has worked in Cairo, Bogota, and Washington D.C, where he covered human rights and political issues in North Africa, Middle East, and Latin America. He holds a B.A. in political Science and Government from the American University in Cairo.
Noura Erakat (moderator) is a human rights attorney and an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University in the Department of Africana Studies and the Program in Criminal Justice. Her research interests include human rights law, humanitarian law, national security law, refugee law, social justice, and critical race theory. Noura is an editorial committee member of the Journal for Palestine Studies and a co-Founding Editor of Jadaliyya, an electronic magazine on the Middle East that combines scholarly expertise and local knowledge. She is the author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019). Noura earned her J.D. and undergraduate degrees from the University of California at Berkeley (Phi Beta Kappa) and a LLM in National Security from Georgetown University Law Center.