Mahienour El-Massry, often dubbed as a voice of the revolution and a champion of women’s rights, has spent her first few nights behind grey walls at Damanhour prison after being sentenced to two years in jail for protesting. The 28-year-old and eight others were sentenced by one of Alexandria’s crumbling courthouses for organizing an ‘unauthorized protest’ and violating the protest law. The young activist, who also happens to be a lawyer, had participated in a protest on December 3rd 2013 to call for justice and retribution for Khaled Saeed, the man who was tortured to death in late 2010. Instead of retribution, her solidarity protest was broken up with tear gas and force. Mahienour and eight others were branded criminals and detractors by security officials. “What’s truly depressing about the arrest of Mahienour is that it’s the detention of a young woman who was protesting and demanding justice outside the trial of a young man whose torture and killing sparked the January 25 revolution,” says Mai El-Sadany, an Egyptian-American human rights activist and researcher. The outrage and depression expressed by El-Sadany has spread across the country. Anadalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies, Egyptian…
