Farewell and thanks to Ahmed Seif (1951-2014) who was called "The sword of the people," and who pushed human rights to center stage
Ahmed Seif El-Islam, who broke out of the box of politics in order to put human rights causes center stage, was also called an "exemplary fighter," and his story is one that appeals to the heart. The list of Egyptians who were bidding him farewell reveals much about the story of this courageous lawyer: "His son, Alaa Abdel Fattah, and his daughter Sanaa Seif, who were temporarily released from prisons to attend the ceremony." And it was by pursuing their father’s example, to perfection, that Mr. Seif’s son and daughter earned their incarceration: they were "incarcerated for protesting repression by the Egyptian government."
During his lifelong history of activism, Mr. Seif was a guest in many Egyptian prisons, under consecutive administrations, and was thus introduced to familiar torture techniques. It was this experience that led him to study law and excel in this profession. He defended all types of cases, no matter whether or not he agreed with the ideology of a given client.
Though he had a history with communist politics, in the end he reached a very important conclusion: "...politics, he decided, was not enough. During his five years in jail in the 1980s, he said, 'I made a decision that it was no use to have political activity without human rights.' He continued: 'The Communists would say secretly, ‘It doesn’t matter if the Islamists are tortured.’ And the Islamists would say, ‘Why not torture Communists?’" according to the New York Times Obituary. "The solution was to make basic rights a part of the law..." The sorrowful statement he made before his death was what he said about the imprisonment of his son last January: He "acknowledged in a news conference that his dreams had fallen short. 'I wanted you to inherit a democratic society that guards your rights, my son,' he said, “but instead I passed on the prison cell that held me, and now holds you,” according to the Times.
--Elie Chalala
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