Mona Seif
| Mona Seif منى سيف |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
March 12, 1986 Cairo, Egypt |
| Residence | Cairo |
| Nationality | Egyptian |
| Occupation | Human rights activist |
| Parent(s) | Ahmed Seif and Laila Soueif |
| Relatives | Alaa Abd El-Fatah (brother) |
| Website | http://tahrirdiaries.wordpress.com/ |
Mona Seif (Arabic: منى سيف, IPA: [ˈmonæ ˈseːf]) is an Egyptian human rights activist known for her participation in dissident movements during and after the 2011 Egyptian revolution, for her creative use of social media in campaigns, and for her work to end military trials for civilian protesters. She is a biology graduate student, investigating the BRCA1 breast cancer gene.
Seif grew up in a family of activists, and politics was a constant topic of discussion during her childhood. Her father, Ahmed Seif, who died in 2014, was a human rights attorney and opposition leader who spent five years in prison during the Mubarak regime. During his detention, he was tortured. Her mother, Laila Soueif, is also an activist and a mathematics professor. She helped organize demonstrations against the Mubarak regime over the decades before his downfall. Her mother is "known on the streets as brash and courageous, and has on numerous occasions faced down baton-wielding policemen with nothing but her scolding, scathing, booming voice and steely eyes".
Seif's brother Alaa Abd El-Fattah co-created the Egyptian blog aggregator Manalaa and in 2005 began to document abuses by the Mubarak regime. Alaa was arrested at a demonstration in 2006 and imprisoned for 45 days, during which Mona and his wife Manal helped organize an online campaign to free him. Seif's younger sister, Sanaa Seif, has also been an opposition activist and protester.
Seif is a graduate student in cancer biology. She is studying the BRCA1 breast cancer gene and its mutation pattern in Egyptian patients. She says she has two full-time careers: one in cancer research, and another in human rights activism.
In the year leading up to the revolution Mona became involved in the dissident movement, spreading awareness and attending demonstrations. Between January 25 and February 5, the members of her immediate family and many members of their extended family participated in the Tahrir Square protests. Mona recalls "It was a life-changing moment for most of the people in Tahrir Square. You could see the gunshots at people...".
Seif is a founding member of No to Military Trials for Civilians, a group pushing for the release of those detained during the revolution; and end to trials of civilians by military courts; transfer of all such civilian facing trial to the jurisdiction of civilian courts; and the investigation of torture allegations involving military police. Seif wrote on her blog Ma3t, about the military police during crackdowns on Tahrir protesters, requesting people come forward with their stories.
...
Wikipedia