Ramadan in the prisons of Egypt .. Difficult times pass on political prisoners

Karim Adel - Cairo

"Sense killer". This is how the former political prisoner Ms. Iqbal, who spent last Ramadan in Qanater prison in Egypt, described this as the case of many of those who were imprisoned without their families in Ramadan.

Iqbal (a pseudonym who asked not to be identified for her own security) told Al Jazeera Net that "prison in Ramadan means women are oppressed and deprived. The absence of women causes the collapse of entire homes."

Egyptian authorities generally deny the existence of political detainees, but independent local and international human rights organizations estimated the number of political detainees in Egypt to be around 60,000.

Iqbal tells about the political detainees' prisons in Ramadan, saying: "When Ramadan comes, we are relieved of the total (security measures to limit the number of female prisoners daily). We start a collective program that differs from the normal days, and we try to gather together to obey and relieve each other. With young women passing through difficult days. "

In the rest of the months life in prison closer to individual and small groups, but in Ramadan - and talk on the tongue Iqbal - attendance is collective, and starts with Suhur and Fajr prayer and then stay for Sunrise in the program of worship, and then sleep until noon.

"Worship is the secret of rest in our prison, yes after breakfast we continue to eat sweets until dinner, but there is a race after that in worship, every day we pray Taraweeh part of the Koran, but the prayer of Tahjid begins At one o'clock.

Ramadan Scorpio
The political activist Mustafa (a pseudonym also at the request of his friend, who came out before the period of the prison of the scorpion heavily guarded), believes that the prison of Scorpio is unparalleled in the restrictions on detainees, noting that the prevention of visits arrived for about two years and the last three " Visits, and the current month of Ramadan is the fourth non-stop ban, which means committing to receive "Miri food," which he describes as very bad.

Al-Scorpion Prison is a high-security prison located in the Tora prison complex south of Cairo. It is followed by numerous accusations by independent human rights organizations of carrying out systematic torture programs that the Egyptian authorities deny.

"Ramadan in the scorpion represents a new tough test, added to the rest of the period of restrictions." "The cells in solitary confinement 2, with senior leaders and age, and the other cells in the other three are overcrowded, sometimes holding seven detainees in the same solitary confinement area of ​​2 x 3 meters," Mustafa said in a private interview. The winter refrigerator and the summer oven, which makes the hardship of fasting greater, as well as the lack of many sessions which makes the month extra isolation on the detainees.

"We are in a race to seal the Koran several times and make Ramadan and prayer Tahjid, next to various paragraphs by religious scholars or politicians or others through the glasses (a hole in the door of the cell Where the detainee speaks and receives his food).

The atmosphere is sad
The political and media activist Hossam al-Wakil narrates another chapter of the pain during the month of Ramadan in Burj al-Arab prison in Alexandria, where he was detained for seven months on a political case, to leave Egypt seeking temporary exile until the media freedoms are restored.

The agent spent last Ramadan inside cell No. 10 on January 3, for which he is a "graveyard", where the cell is about two meters wide and 2.5 tall, and there are 14 political prisoners, while the cell of "revenue" (ie, the new detainees) The prison administration allows the prison to open only one hour a day for exposure to the sun.

According to the agent, the month of Ramadan passes through the prison between a sad atmosphere mixed with memories and longing for the people, mosques and the spirit of Ramadan, and between full-time worship.

The prison administration does not allow detainees to be allowed to enter mosques but refuses to enter any books or papers about Ramadan. However, the detainees face this with their memories of the virtues of the month or religious meanings, as well as what wives can write in short letters that allow them to enter .

According to the agent, the days of Ramadan in the prison are very frequent, but they provide a long time for worship, indicating that the detainees communicate during the hour with the detainees in other cells and exchange the words of faith.