Laila Soueif Resumes Full Hunger Strike Over Son’s Imprisonment in Egypt

Laila Soueif, the 69-year-old British-Egyptian human rights activist and mother of imprisoned writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah, has resumed a full hunger strike in protest of her son's continued detention in Egypt beyond his five-year sentence. Having already lost 42 percent of her body weight over 233 days without food, Soueif had temporarily shifted to a partial hunger strike after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's intervention with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in February, but has now stopped the 300-calorie supplement as progress stalled. Abd el-Fattah, jailed since 2019 on charges of spreading fake news, is denied consular access and continues to be held despite legal arguments that his pretrial detention should count toward his sentence. Soueif's protest highlights the lack of decisive action by the British and Egyptian governments, with her health deteriorating dangerously, including a hospitalization in February. Meanwhile, in Kingston, Canada, Oneida woman Lindsey Pilon staged a hunger strike and sit-in to support Indigenous and Palestinian rights, urging local MP Mark Gerretsen to advocate for government action to end the war in Gaza. Both protests underscore individual acts of resistance aimed at drawing attention to human rights issues amid political inertia.