The UK Foreign Office has been asked to intervene to secure the release of a British-Egyptian woman who it is claimed has been arrested in Cairo because of her sister’s political activism.
Eman el-Shazly, a 45-year-old based in Birmingham, was arrested on 16 August while visiting Egypt. Her lawyers say she has been detained in an attempt to silence her sister Mona, a relentless and harsh critic of the Egyptian government on her UK-based YouTube channel.
Her two brothers have already spent three years in jail and, in May, were rearrested. They were previously held in pre-trial detention, facing charges of “promoting the ideas of a terrorist organisation on social media, as well as broadcasting false news harmful to state security.”
The Arrest
The UK Foreign Office has confirmed to Eman’s husband that she is being held in the Ramadan rehabilitation centre and her case has been given the same file number as that of her two brothers, Hassan and Eid.
Arfan Rashid, the lawyer acting for Eman’s husband, says unlike Mona, his wife has never been involved in politics, and had gone to Cairo two months ago to look after her ill mother after the arrest of her two brothers.
“There is ample evidence that Eman has been arrested to silence Mona,” Rashid said. He added that Eman had told security officials she was no longer in contact with her sister, and that many family members had repeatedly asked Mona to stop her political activism in the UK, but to no effect.
The Activism Connection
The government of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has faced allegations that it frequently arrests relatives of political critics to put indirect pressure on dissidents to end their overseas criticism of his rule or of state corruption. Much of Mona’s activism focuses on alleged cases of corruption inside the security services or public utilities, a highly sensitive subject in Egypt.
Mona runs a YouTube channel in the UK that has 130,000 subscribers. She is also active on X, making specific and controversial claims about government officials.
Mona confirmed to the Guardian that she had been asked to halt her activism by other family members, including to take down her YouTube videos. But she added: “I have done nothing wrong nor broken any law.”
The Family’s Ordeal
Eman’s husband, Zeesharn Moustapha, has said Egyptian police and security officers attended the family home where she was staying a few days before the arrest, and demanded that Eman tell Mona to stop publishing material against the Egyptian government.
On X, Mona has claimed as many as five members of her family have been detained or harassed by the Egyptian authorities. She wrote: “Kinship is something beyond my family’s will, and I invite them to disown me to save themselves from this despicable, illegitimate dictator. I am the one opposing Sisi, not five individuals from my family. This is a crime against humanity that does not lapse with time.”
The UK Response
Rashid said the UK government had recognised the practice of “punishment by proxy” in Egypt in its country profile policy and information note published in March 2026. Human Rights Watch and the House of Commons library warned in 2021 of an escalating pattern in which Egyptian family members of critics living abroad were being targeted.
The UK’s Foreign Office representation in Cairo has asked for access to see Eman but has not yet received a positive reply. Eman’s lawyer has asked whether Alistair Burt, the UK’s new envoy on complex consular cases, should be asked to intervene. Burt was appointed a month ago and has been tasked with working to secure the release of British citizens held abroad.
The Foreign Office has been approached for comment.
The Bottom Line
A British-Egyptian woman, Eman el-Shazly, has been arrested in Cairo, reportedly as a “punishment by proxy” for her sister Mona’s political activism on YouTube. Her two brothers are also detained. The UK Foreign Office has confirmed her detention and is seeking consular access. Human rights groups have warned of a pattern of targeting family members of critics in Egypt. The family is calling for UK intervention.
