Blogger files claim to have name removed from government blacklist
CAIRO: Hala Helmy Botros, an Egyptian Coptic activist and human rights advocate says she the government her to close down her blog Aqbat Bela Hodood (Copts Without Borders), in which she highlighted alleged incidents of persecution directed at the Christian Coptic minority.In addition, she was ordered to stop writing on the subject for other websites, according to a report issued by Reporters Without Borders.Her story is indicative of government attempts to quash any online discussion of possible sectarian strife in Egypt.
On Dec. 24, Botros is due to appear at a court hearing in a case aimed at removing her name from a government blacklist (which she discovered she was on during a trip to the Mugamma, the public government building in Tahrir Square).
“The government does a lot to try and prevent bloggers from getting the message out. I have a blog and am a human rights activist and I focus on sectarian issues. I was interested in this and thus covered such issues. They [the government] didn’t like what I was doing, Botros said in an interview with The Daily Star Egypt.
Gamal Eid, executive director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, believes that Botro’s case highlights perfectly the steps the government will take to curb freedom of expression on the Internet. “Hala’s case contains many violations, Eid told The Daily Star Egypt, “they closed down her site, closed the cyber café she would frequent and prevented her from traveling abroad. And all this is because of what she wrote in her blog.
Botros, 42, also known as Hala El-Masry, says that her run-in with state authorities began in April 2006. “I received a call at 1 am that a makeshift church built by the Coptic community in Qena was being pulled down. I went and found the security services watching the carnage as they sipped tea on a bridge nearby. In all the cases of violence against Copts, I saw laxness in the security services. In this incident I got angry and confronted the security services, she said.
Churches cannot be built or renovated without permission from the relevant government authorities. Due to the fact that planning permissions are often not forthcoming, many Copts build makeshift houses of worship, which are illegal under the law.
After confronting the officers present at the scene, Botros was taken to the Qena police station. She said, “They asked me who was paying me, which foreigners do I meet. They called me a spy. Later, my kids were harassed in school by other kids, who would tell them ‘give us some of that American money.’
Eventually Botros was released thanks to pressure exerted on her behalf by the Coptic community. However, her story doesn’t end there.
Botros continues, “I went to attend a Christian conference in New Jersey; I was stopped in the airport and held for two hours. I was not allowed to board the flight. Later, police passed by my house and they took my husband. They made him sign a statement that he pledged to take me to an interview with the state security.
According to Eid, the government punished Botros for exercising her basic right of freedom of expression, yet the government did not manage to prevent her from continuing to speak out. “All they did was sully her reputation and defame her, he said.
He added that the onus should be on the government to prevent discrimination against Copts, rather than try and prohibit people from speaking out on it. “We ask the government to put a stop to discrimination against Copts, rather than stop people from writing about it. We want the problem to be solved rather than not be declared.
Botros is not regretful of what she did. “I was defending a cause, the rights of Copts in Egypt and the right to build houses of worship, she told The Daily Star Egypt.
She does admit that the Coptic community will often build makeshift churches without government approval. “Yes I admit we cheat when building churches. We raise a curtain and behind it we build a house of worship. [But] we need churches and a unified law concerning houses of worship, she said.
Since then Botros’s blog has been shut down. Authorities even once confiscated all the computers of a cyber café she had frequented, she said, and the result was that other cyber cafés in the area feared letting her use their facilities.
However, Botros does not believe that the government will be able to rein in the blogging scene. “[The government] can’t control the blogging scene. All they will do is suppress it here but they cannot suppress it globally.
She adds, “Blogger pressure has changed Egyptian society as opposed to the independent press. All the online community is banding together regardless of what they believe, whether pro-Islamic or anti-Copt.
Botros stressed that the Coptic community considers itself aligned with the future of the country and willing to make any sacrifices necessary for the country. “We are not traitors; we will die for this land, she said.
Botros added that the only Egyptian soldier to die in the 1990 Gulf war was a Coptic Christian who was training to be a priest.
