• EGYPT
  • August 29, 2017
  • 5 minutes read

Detained Mum-of-Four Shireen Bekheet’s Heart-Rending Message from Coup Junta’s Dark Dungeons

Detained Mum-of-Four Shireen Bekheet’s Heart-Rending Message from Coup Junta’s Dark Dungeons
Days pass slowly, in dark and oppressive monotony, inside Qanater Prison for Women where my life has become a mirage, and I have lost almost all hope of getting released.

Time passes slowly, too, while I try hard to hold onto memories, images of my four children. I am not allowed to see them or even ask about their wellbeing in my absence.

I try to forget how coup security forces violently broke into my home at dawn one day, months ago, and the desperate screams of my bewildered children when I was dragged, helpless, unable to reassure or calm them down. I try to forget how I was then hauled over by shameless men, utterly contemptuous of all customs, traditions and morals of Egyptian society. They took me to the National Security Agency’s headquarters, where they interrogated and hit me repeatedly for long hours.

Such memories cannot heal, nor can they be treated by a doctor. They are bitter memories, hard to forget, of big men insulting me, beating me up, and accusing me unjustly and falsely of various audacious crimes without any evidence. I remember all the pain, and I try to forget – in vain.

I was falsely accused of calling people to join the November 11 (2016) demonstrations and the publication of false news, in case 761 of 2016 – Supreme State Security.

In the prosecution’s investigations, I denied all the "confessions" I was forced to make under duress. The prosecution documented that. But so far, they have been renewing or extending my remand-in-custody repeatedly.

To the Attorney-General, human rights bodies, organizations and institutions, and all concerned…

What crime did I commit to be doomed to a life behind bars, totally isolated all these months, since October 19, 2016, without any evidence to support the false charges laid against me?!

What did my 4 young children do to deserve a life of homelessness and loss, away from me – because of my arrest, and away from their father – because of coup authorities hounding him in his forced exile.

It seems that my only crime is that I am 100% Egyptian. Evidently, I and my children are being punished for being Egyptian, for our love for our country and our beloved homeland Egypt.

I say it again: To defenders of women’s rights… where am I, in your world?! To defenders of children’s rights… Where are my children’s rights?

I repeat myself yet again: "I need my children more than they need me!" Are there any remnants of justice in our beloved country Egypt?!

Anyone listening?!