UK urged to help free British-Egyptian woman arrested in Cairo over sister’s activism

Egyptian authorities have long faced accusations of arresting relatives of overseas dissidents to pressure them into silence, a practice the UK government itself acknowledged in a March 2026 country policy note as "punishment by proxy". That pattern is now at the centre of a new consular case after lawyers for Eman el-Shazly, a 45-year-old British-Egyptian from Birmingham, said she was detained in Cairo on 16 August while visiting Egypt.

Her legal team says the arrest was designed to silence her sister Mona, who runs a UK-based YouTube channel with 130,000 subscribers and has been a relentless critic of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi's government, focusing on alleged corruption in the security services and public utilities.

The UK Foreign Office has confirmed to el-Shazly's husband that she is being held in the Ramadan rehabilitation centre and that her case carries the same file number as that of her two brothers, Hassan and Eid, who have already spent three years in jail and were rearrested in May on charges of "promoting the ideas of a terrorist organisation on social media" and broadcasting false news harmful to state security.

Arfan Rashid, the lawyer acting for el-Shazly's husband, said his client had never been involved in politics and had travelled to Cairo two months ago to care for her ill mother after the brothers' arrest. "There is ample evidence that Eman has been arrested to silence Mona," Rashid said, adding that el-Shazly told security officials she was no longer in contact with her sister.

El-Shazly's husband, Zeesharn Moustapha, said Egyptian police and security officers visited the family home days before the arrest and demanded that Eman tell Mona to stop publishing material against the Egyptian government. Mona confirmed to the Guardian that relatives had repeatedly asked her to halt her activism, including taking down her YouTube videos.

"I have done nothing wrong nor broken any law … I am a very strong woman, but it is very traumatic for me since 11 or 12 children are without their parents," Mona said. "It is a horrible situation, but the Egyptian government will not stop if I appear weak. The government is close to collapsing."

The UK's Foreign Office representation in Cairo has requested consular access to el-Shazly but has not yet received a positive reply. Rashid has also asked whether Alistair Burt, the UK's new envoy on complex consular cases appointed a month ago, should intervene.

Human Rights Watch and the House of Commons library warned as far back as 2021 of an escalating pattern in which family members of critics living abroad were targeted by Egyptian authorities. The current case adds to that record, with Mona claiming on X that as many as five members of her family have now been detained or harassed.