25 Nov 20 | Egypt, News and features
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Kelly and Ennarah in happier times
Two months ago, British documentary filmmaker Jess Kelly was making plans for a happy future. She had just got married and she and her Egyptian husband Karim Ennarah were planning on a life together in London.
Today, the future could hardly be more uncertain. Ennarah is in an Egyptian jail facing charges of belonging to a terrorist group and spreading false news, with the threat of a long jail sentence.
Ennarah’s ‘crime’ was to meet in early November with a group of European diplomats, including from the UK and the Netherlands, to discuss human rights issues in the country. Ennarah works as criminal justice unit director for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. His work focuses on human rights abuses within Egypt’s policing and the criminal justice system.
Speaking to Index, Kelly said, “I was in London on the day of the meeting and we were on the phone. He mentioned he had to get up early and had an important meeting with a couple of diplomats.
“It was typical of him to underplay the importance of these things and also to underplay his role. He joked that he was going to have to wear a suit. I didn’t know then it was going to be such a historic turning point,” said Kelly.
A few days later, Ennarah travelled to the Red Sea town of Dahab for a short break with friends. Kelly planned to join him there.
On the day of his arrival, Ennarah received a phone call to say that his EIPR colleague Mohammad Bashseer had been arrested. He thought about turning around and heading straight back to help but he decided to stay for one night.
Kelly says, “That night he called me, he told me the police had come to his mum’s house and told me to prepare for the worst. He couldn’t couch it in comforting terms.”
A natural advocate
Kelly first met Ennarah in 2009.
“I was doing my degree in Arabic and was spending the second year in Cairo. We were introduced by mutual friends. At the time, he was working for the UN in South Sudan and he started working for EIPR in 2011, just after the revolution. We got together in 2015.”
Ennarah was well suited to his new role.
“He found himself very suited to the job of advocacy,” said Kelly. “His sense of right and wrong was strong and he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of human rights. He is also a very good speaker and can talk to anyone.”
EIPR is one of the few remaining human rights organisations in Egypt.
“Over the years, Karim has supported many journalists who come to him for comment,” said Kelly. “EIPR are the ones in the know, they are the only people taking testimonies and conducting proper research into abuses of human rights, whether of minorities or in the criminal justice system.”
Kelly says that the human rights situation in Egypt has deteriorated over the years and the authorities have been locking up political prisoners at an increasing rate.
“I have made films in most countries in the Middle East – Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia. Egypt is the only place I have never been granted a visa. People see Egypt as a holiday destination where you can drink and people have a good time. It is well known to us in the media that Egypt is the only place that you don’t try and expose things because you will be locked up.”
Someone has to keep fighting
On 18 November, the couple’s concerns materialised. Ennarah was sitting in a restaurant in the Red Sea town when he was arrested by the authorities.
During a four-hour investigation, security forces confiscated his laptop, phone and personal belongings and ordered his pre-trial detention for 15 days on charges of “joining a terrorist group”, “using a social media account to spread false news” and “spreading false news”. The prosecutor said the charges were based on security investigations showing that Ennarah “agreed with a group inside prisons to spread false rumours that could undermine public peace and public safety.”
Ennarah is not alone – Patrick George Zaki, a human rights activist who had previously worked with EIPR, and the organisation’s executive director Gasser Abed El Razek have also been arrested.
“When Patrick Zaki was detained in February, it was a huge shock for everyone,” said Kelly. “We discovered that they had interrogated him and had asked about Karim by name.”
Despite this worrying development, Ennarah did not flinch.
“Karim is someone who is not going to run away from anything until he is forced to,” said Kelly. “We spoke about how it wasn’t safe for him but he just was never going to give up this role. There are not many people who can take it one, he would say, someone has to keep fighting.”
He loves Egypt the most
Kelly has not been able to speak with Ennarah or get him a message since his arrest a week ago but she believes emphatically that he will be strong.
“Karim is very resilient and very pragmatic,“ said Kelly. “He will be confident that he has the best people working on his case get him out. He is very strong-willed but I think it is going to be very hard for him to think about his mum and me. He wouldn’t have wanted me to put my life on hold but I can’t think of anything else.”
Kelly speaks to Ennarah’s mother regularly. “When we talk, she seems pretty strong. She is proud of him. She says to me, ‘He is the person who loves Egypt the most. How could they level these accusations against him?’”
Kelly believes that applying pressure now – before there is a trial or sentencing – offers the best chance of getting him free. Some 90,000 people have already signed a petition started by Kelly to UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab calling for the UK government to demand his release.
Next Monday is Ennarah’s 38th birthday and it will be a difficult day for Kelly and Ennarah’s family.
“Just two months ago when we got married we were dreaming of our future together. Now I don’t even know when I’ll get to see him again,” she said. “I couldn’t wait to have him by my side. Now our life together has been crushed.”
She says the charges against Ennarah are totally unfounded.
“His only crime is to dare to believe that Egyptians deserve the most basic of human rights.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][three_column_post title=”You may also want to read” category_id=”4060″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
20 Nov 20 | Egypt, Opinion, Ruth's blog
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”115594″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]One of the most challenging things about working for Index is being exposed, on a daily basis, to the realities and the horrors of repressive regimes. Every day there is another murder of a journalist, a book banned, a student arrested, a people, like the Uighurs, imprisoned. The bad news seems never-ending.
We are a small team, but we work with correspondents and activists across the world and every time we learn of a new arrest or attack there is that moment of fear – do we know them? When were we last in touch? What can we do? And if we don’t know them, it’s likely we know someone who does.
For every infringement, for every arrest, for every murder there is also an element of guilt – what more should we have done? When was the last time we focused on that country, on that fight? On that repressive regime? When did we last use our voices for them?
This was absolutely the case last night, when reports started to emerge from Cairo about the arrest of Gasser Abed El Razek, executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR). The details are sketchy but it seems that Razek was arrested at his house in Cairo’s Maadi neighbourhood and no one knows where he has been taken.
This is the third arrest of EIPR staff in recent days; their ‘crime’ – briefing European diplomats on the current state of human rights in Egypt.
Administrative director Mohammed Basheer was arrested on Sunday while criminal justice unit director Karim Ennarah was arrested while on holiday on Wednesday.
All have been charged with joining a terrorist group, spreading fake news and other financing terrorism. All are now under pre-trial detention, in theory for 15 days, but under Egyptian law it could be two years.
There are currently 60,000 political prisoners thought to be incarcerated in Egypt.
We know that because organisations like the EIPR make sure that we do. The EIPR is one of the few remaining independent NGOs reporting on human rights in Egypt. And Razek has been one of the leading voices exposing human rights violations both in Egypt and across the Middle East for over 20 years. These arrests are not just an attack on free speech, but on the global community fighting for our collective human rights.
We stand with Gasser Abed El Razek, Mohammed Basheer and Karim Ennarah and we will keep reporting on them until they are freed.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][three_column_post title=”You may also want to read” category_id=”41669″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
23 Jul 19 | Events
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”108169″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Above: Tehran: City of Love © Here and There Productions[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This public symposium will reflect on the paradox of creative constraints in contemporary cinema from the Middle East – a day of film screenings and panel discussions with filmmakers, funders and programmers, including some of the most innovative rising talents as well as established experts.
Freedom of expression is often understood solely through the lens of state censorship. This symposium, however, starts from the premise that social, economic and other constraints shape any film from the outset, rather than only coming at the end of the process in the form of intervention by the state or other parties. It seeks to explore the different kinds of limitations on freedom of cinematic expression, from funding through to problems on set, lack of local distribution and travel restrictions, as well as the complex negotiation between constraints and political and creative impulses behind the films. It will deal with questions such as what types of constraints do filmmakers face when they make and distribute films in the region? To what extent are these constraints either productive or harmful? How do the creative strategies used by filmmakers evolve in response to the constraints?
The symposium will offer new insights into filmmaking from the region, revitalising debates on cinematic creativity in sites of conflict and crisis in the Middle East and beyond.
Confirmed speakers include:
Mounia Akl, Film Director, Submarine (Lebanon, US, 2016)
Naziha Arebi, Film Director, Freedom Fields (UK, Libya, 2018)
Shirin Barghnavard, Film Director, Profession: Documentarist (Iran, 2014)
Fay Breeman, Manager, Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam
Tamer El Said, Film Director and Co-Founder, Cimatheque, Cairo
Julia Farrington, Associate Arts Producer, Index on Censorship
Yael Friedman, Documentary Filmmaker and film scholar
Malu Halasa, Writer and Editor
Ali Jaberansari, Film Director, Tehran: City of Love (Iran, UK, Netherlands, 2018)
Basil Khalil, Film Director, Ave Maria (Palestine, France, Germany, 2015)
Rima Mismar, Executive Director, Arab Fund for Arts and Culture
Persheng Sadegh-Vaziri, Documentary Filmmaker and Film Scholar
Naghmeh Samini, Screenwriter
Elhum Shakerifar, BAFTA-nominated film producer, MENA programme advisor for the BFI London Film Festival and Film Curator for Shubbak, festival of contemporary Arab culture
Full schedule available here.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
When: Saturday 7 September 2019 10:00 am
Where: The Mosaic Rooms, Tower House, 226 Cromwell Road, London SW5 0SW
Tickets: £5.00 – £6.50 via Mosaic Rooms (includes lunch/refreshments)
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The paradox of creative constraints resource pack
Symposium organiser Shohini Chaudhuri has put together a reading list of articles dealing with constraints in Middle Eastern cinema from the Index on Censorship magazine archive.
- An undelivered love letter: Kite Runner star Khalid Abdalla talks about how his film In the Last Days of the City can’t be screened in the city where it is set, Cairo
- Make art not war: Yemeni artists are painting the streets of bombed out cities with their protests
- Return of Iraq’s silver screen: Iraq’s film industry is reviving after decades of conflict. Can it help the nation rebuild?
- Mission Unaccomplished
- New Times, Same Problems
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Presented in partnership with:[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”108172″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://mosaicrooms.org/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]
19 Mar 19 | Awards, News and features
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Mohammed al-Maskati is a Bahraini activist and digital security consultant who provides digital security training to activists in the Middle East and in North Africa.
Working as Frontline Defenders’ Digital Protection Consultant for the MENA Region, Mohammed teaches activists – ranging from vulnerable minorities to renowned campaigners taking on whole governments – to get the truth out despite governments’ attempt to shut them down. He educates them on the use of VPNs, and how to avoid falling into phishing or malware traps, create safe passwords and keep their accounts anonymous.
The MENA region is one of the most oppressive areas of the world for human rights defenders, but it is too often ignored by app and software developers, who do not provide products or instructions manual in Arabic.
Mohammed Al-Maskati opens the door to using digital security apps, and as a direct result of his training, a growing number of activists in the Middle East have reported being able to avoid government surveillance and reprisals.
Regional governments have also taken notice of Mohammed’s activities. In May 2014, during a visit to Oman, he was kidnapped from a taxi and disappeared for three days, during which he was asked the names of the people he was helping. He has been banned from travelling to at least five countries, making it more difficult to reach activists in the region.
A good example is Mohammed’s work in Iraq. Demonstrations erupted in September, and clashes broke out between protesters and Iraqi forces. The independent media websites reporting on the unrest were soon taken down by the government.
Mohammed travelled to Iraq and helped the activists to circumvent censorship, and the websites were able to keep going.
He had a similar impact in Egypt ahead of the March 2018 national elections, when the government was censoring not only websites but also several VPN services. Mohammed was able to arrange for a group of organisations to offer their VPN for free to Egyptian human rights defenders and journalists.
Mohammed has also been active to circumvent his travel ban. He has written Arabic-language training manuals on digital security, which he has released online, and set up a digital security email newsletter. He is also the founder of and part of the rapid response team, which is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week to help tackle digital attacks as they happen in real time.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”104691″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2019/01/awards-2019/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Awards exist to celebrate individuals or groups who have had a significant impact fighting censorship anywhere in the world.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1552650108302-4a47418b-5e3e-10″ taxonomies=”26925″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
