The UK Foreign Office has been asked to intervene to secure the release of a British-Egyptian woman who it is claimed has been arrested in Cairo because of her sister’s political activism.
Eman el-Shazly, a ۴۵-year-old based in Birmingham, was arrested on ۱۶ August while visiting Egypt. Her lawyers say she has been detained in an attempt to silence her sister Mona, a relentless and harsh critic of the Egyptian government on her UK-based YouTube channel.
Her two brothers have already spent three years in jail and, in May, were rearrested. They were previously held in pre-trial detention, facing charges of “promoting the ideas of a terrorist organisation on social media, as well as broadcasting false news harmful to state security”.
The UK Foreign Office has confirmed to the husband of Eman that she is being held in the Ramadan rehabilitation centre and her case has been given the same file number as that of her two brothers, Hassan and Eid.
The government of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has faced allegations that it frequently arrests relatives of political critics to put indirect pressure on the dissidents to end their overseas criticism of his rule or of state corruption. Much of Mona’s activism focuses on alleged cases of corruption inside the security services or public utilities, a highly sensitive subject in Egypt.
Arfan Rashid, the lawyer acting for Eman’s husband with whom she has four children, says that unlike Mona his wife has never been involved in politics, and had gone to Cairo two months ago to look after her ill mother after the arrest of her two brothers.
“There is ample evidence that Eman has been arrested to silence Mona,” Rashid said. He added that Eman had told the security officials she was no longer in contact with her sister, and that many family members had repeatedly asked her to stop her political activism in the UK, but to no effect.
Mona confirmed to the Guardian that she had been asked to halt her activism by other family members, including to take down her YouTube videos.
But she added: “I have done nothing wrong nor broken any law … I am a very strong woman, but it is very traumatic for me since ۱۱ or ۱۲ children are without their parents. It is a horrible situation, but the Egyptian government will not stop if I appear weak. The government is close to collapsing.”
Rashid said the UK government had recognised the practice of “punishment by proxy” in Egypt in its country profile policy and information note published in March ۲۰۲۶. Human Rights Watch and the House of Commons library warned in ۲۰۲۱ of an escalating pattern in which Egyptian family members of critics living abroad were being targeted.
Mona runs a YouTube channel in the UK that has ۱۳۰,۰۰۰ subscribers. She is also active on X, making specific and controversial claims about government officials.
The UK’s Foreign Office representation in Cairo has asked for access to see Eman but has not yet received a positive reply.
Eman’s husband, Zeesharn Moustapha, has said Egyptian police and security officers attended the family home where she was staying a few days before the arrest, and demanded that Eman tell Mona to stop publishing material against the Egyptian government.
On X, Mona has claimed as many as five members of her family have been detained or harassed by the Egyptian authorities. She wrote: “Kinship is something beyond my family’s will, and I invite them to disown me to save themselves from this despicable, illegitimate dictator. I am the one opposing Sisi, not five individuals from my family. This is a crime against humanity that does not lapse with time.” She has lived in the UK for ۱۸ years.
Eman became a British citizen through marriage. Her lawyer has asked whether Alistair Burt, the UK’s new envoy on complex consular cases, should be asked to intervene by the Foreign Office. Burt was appointed a month ago and has been tasked with working to secure the release of British citizens held abroad.
Burt has already met Gurpreet Singh Johal, the brother of Jagtar Singh Johal, who has been detained by the Indian authorities for nearly nine years without a conviction.
The Foreign Office has been approached for comment.
