Engagement Behind Bars

I had my engagement party a couple of months ago. I don't think this piece of news should mean anything to anyone beyond my relatives, friends and colleagues, except that my engagement party was different. Neither my fiancées friends nor mine were able to attend, and the only attendees were our families, a group of political prisoners, and a group of police officers and inspectors. That is because I had my engagement party in Tora prison, where my father in law has been detained with 32 other Muslim Brotherhood leaders and businessmen for the past 16 months. When I first proposed to my fiancée Khadiga, she asked me to wait and not officially propose to her parents till her father is released. Being part of the misery of detainees' families for the preceding months, and knowing how much it would hurt her that her father does not attend her engagement party, I accepted.I waited for a couple of months, moving between hope and despair. Civilian courts had already ordered the immediate release of my father in law and other detainees a few times, and the administrative court ruled that the president's decision to transfer the case to a military tribunal to be unconstitutional. All this was not enough for the regime to halt its extralegal crackdown on its largest political opposition group in Egypt. The tribunal sessions commenced and scandals followed including massive forgeries and thefts committed by State Security officers. Human rights activists from all over the world were denied access to the court room where sessions secretly resumed. After each session, and after each scandal, I was full of hope that the judge would order the immediate release of detainees, but this never happened. This could not have happened since the judge is a military officer who has to follow the commands of his seniors, in this case the president and the minister of defence. My waiting seemed to be endless as the hope for justice was fading. I was left with no alternative but convince Khadiga that I should officially propose. She agreed that we could have an engagement party, but the wedding should wait till her father is released. We had two engagement parties in four days. Selecting a day for each of the events was not easy, as marathonic tribunal sessions were taking place on daily basis. On Friday, we organized a small reception at her place where we took some pictures and invited some family members and close friends. Khadiga cried several times during the event. She left the room after exchanging engagement rings, and came back with tears in her eyes telling me that she can't imagine she's doing that in her father's absence. On Monday we went to Tora prison, where telephones and cameras are prohibited, and visitors are inspected three times on their way to the visiting lounge. I felt really bad to see my family go through this suffering which my fiancées family has been going through on weekly basis for 16 months now. In the prison's lounge, we organized another reception that was honored by the presence of a large number of political detainees at a time where most activists seem to belong behind bars.Again, the event did not pass without a few tears from Khadiga, but this time tears came from most of the attendees. Air was full of mixed feelings; happiness shared by families and detainees attending this engagement ceremony, strength and optimism resulting from our insistence to move forward with our lives, and bitterness for having to attend this event behind bars. This is not my story alone. Over the past year, 12 of the detainees' sons and daughters have been engaged, married or both. They insist on moving forward with their lives, despite the agony filling their hearts. Their parents have taught them to spread hope, and they do so by starting new families full of love, and willing to sacrifice time, money and effort in the struggle for reform to guarantee their own children will not have to go through the same suffering. The 33 detained MB leaders, along with seven others trialed in absentia, are awaiting a court verdict today, April 15th. The court has already dropped terrorism and money laundry charges, and they are now spending their 17th month behind bars accused of joining an illegal organization. I know that I will not be able to pressure Khadiga again to convince her to get married without waiting for her father's release. Had my father in law been a criminal, I would not have been as keen as she is that he attends the wedding. But he is a reputable businessman who has been acquitted by civilian courts, which praised detainees as "respectable businessmen, engineers, doctors and professionals," and deemed the charged put forth by the notorious state security apparatus as "groundless, intentionally fabricated and politically motivated." Egypt's regime is not only destroying economic and political lives of Egyptian with the political occlusion and economic hardships we are going through, but it is also destroying social lives of respectable opposition members though resorting to repressive measurements including imprisonment and extralegal detention. I still believe belated justice is better than injustice, and am still hoping that no later than today, my father in law and other detainees will be released.