Recent documentation from human rights groups shows a sharp escalation in practices used by Egyptian authorities to suppress dissent. Several developments across 2024–2025 highlight three recurring patterns: pressure on civil society organisations, reprisals against relatives of exiled critics, and renewed judicial harassment of long-persecuted human rights defenders.
Family-based retaliation has become increasingly visible. For instance, in October 2025, security forces arrested Sobhy Eid, father of journalist and podcast host Seif al-Islam Eid, after coordinated raids on multiple family homes. Similar cases in recent years, targeting the families of journalists, researchers, and defenders abroad, suggest a persistent strategy of using relatives as leverage against those critical of the state.
Civil society organisations also face mounting administrative obstacles. The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) continues to experience delays in receiving authorisation for funding under the 2019 Associations Law, despite fulfilling all legal requirements. Staff members have additionally faced travel restrictions, questioning at airports, and other forms of pressure that hinder their work.
The situation of Hoda Abdelmonem, a lawyer and long-standing human rights defender, illustrates the continued reliance on prolonged detention and case rotation. Although she completed a five-year sentence in 2023, she remains imprisoned on new charges mirroring previous allegations. Her health has deteriorated significantly, and her next trial hearing is scheduled for 16 December 2025.
Alongside these developments, many Egyptian defenders have reorganised in exile. In a recent interview we conducted in Brussels, members of HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement described how activists displaced abroad are building new networks and tools to support documentation, advocacy, and community resilience despite ongoing challenges.
Together, these trends point to a broader environment in which civic space in Egypt remains severely constrained, both through direct repression and through administrative and legal measures that limit independent activity.
