Egyptian academic detained upon arrival at Cairo airport

Egyptian security forces arrested an academic researcher while she was with her family at Cairo International Airport in the early hours of Sunday.

Alia Mosallam, a historian and postdoctoral fellow at Germany’s Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, had flown in from Berlin with her husband and three children and was arrested upon arrival.

Mosallam’s husband, Yahia Shawkat, is a well-known urban and housing researcher. 

Mosallam was held at the airport for 17 hours and interrogated several times by National Security Agency officials, Shawkat told Mada Masr, an independent Egyptian outlet that Musallam has written for.

Her detention was met with outrage on social media, including by staff from her alma mater, London's School of Oriental and African Studies.

Egyptian historian and @SOAS graduate Alia Mosallam has been detained in Cairo - senseless, disturbing, worrying. I hope she gets out as soon as possible to join her young family who need her. Yet another travesty. https://t.co/W7fZYEyEf7

— Reem Abou-El-Fadl (@Reem_AbouElFadl) July 11, 2021

The arbitrary detention of academics and journalists upon their return to Egypt has been common under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s rule.

In February of this year, authorities detained Ahmed Samir Santawy, a student based in Vienna who had returned to Egypt for the winter break, for “joining a terrorist organisation" and spreading "false news".

Santawy, whose academic work focused on women’s reproductive rights, had been interrogated at Sharm al-Sheikh International Airport on December 15.