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Cairo – March 10th, 2026
The Refugees Platform in Egypt stands in full and unconditional solidarity with journalist Iman Adel, a mother who finds herself today facing a fierce campaign of hate speech, discrimination, and incitement, following her courageous attempt to preserve her 7-year-old child’s right to have his father in his life. What Iman is experiencing is not just a targeted, online harassment campaign, but a reflection of a general trend that deliberately targets anyone who challenges the propaganda employed by a festering sentiment of extreme nationalism.
Iman’s plight began when she, as a mother, tried to defend her child’s social stability and psychological well-being by appealing to the Egyptian authorities to renew the residency permit of her child’s father, Syrian journalist Samer Mokhtar, who had been living in Egypt for 14 years. Iman did this by posting a video regarding these circumstances on her personal Facebook account, whereafter she received a phone call luring Samer Mokhtar to the General Administration of Passports, Immigration, and Nationality’s office under the pretext that Samer would receive his residence permit in response to Iman’s appeal. Nonetheless, as soon as Samer, Iman, and their child arrived at the office, Samer was detained and disappeared for hours before being forcibly deported to Beirut as a trap had been blatantly set for Samer using Iman and their child. This behavior not only violated Samer’s rights, but also flagrantly violated the Egyptian child’s right to his father’s care. Samer was deported without even being allowed to see his child one last time, in a scene that reflects a cruelty unbecoming of state institutions that claim to protect familial unification.
Instead of receiving support, Iman was met with a barrage of hateful comments questioning her patriotism and loyalty simply because she married and started a family with a Syrian citizen whom she later divorced. This targeted online harassment campaign went so far as to demand that Iman and her Egyptian child also be deported to join his father. The posts and comments also questioned Iman’s social media account, invaded her privacy, and expressed shock at Iman’s defense of her ex-husband who is the father of her child. They even went so far as to refer to the General Intelligence Service, the Ministry of Interior, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, suggesting that Iman herself was at fault for trying to save Samer from forced deportation. Even Iman’s appeal to the authorities to grant her a grace period to renew Samer’s residency as an investor was met with ridicule and considered evidence against her that she was “manipulating” the law and claiming that the father of her child was an investor when he was not.
Iman, Samer, and their child’s case comes amid a horrific and unprecedented crackdown against forcibly displaced people in Egypt, driven by new administrative policies that link the right to remain in Egypt solely to financial and investment capacity. This formal stance fuels an escalation of hate speech that views the other as a ‘burden’ on the Egyptian national economy and makes it extremely difficult to renew residencies as well as legalize status.
It is the official silence towards these campaigns that has given extremists the green light to intimidate Iman Adel and attempt to break her will as a mother who wants a healthy, normal life for her and Samer’s son.
In solidarity with Iman Adel, we at the Refugee Platform in Egypt demand:
- Legal protection for Iman Adel, and the prosecution of those who incited and were responsible for the campaigns of abuse, harassment, intimidation, defamation, slander, and threats she was subjected to on social media platforms.
- The immediate cessation of any protocol that separates families and the return of Samer Mokhtar to Egypt to safeguard his son’s rights, given Samer’s deportation was arbitrary and did not involve a fair trial.
- Criminalize hate speech, with clear legislation to protect forcibly displaced people and Egyptian citizens by association from targeted campaigns of extremist incitement.
Today, Iman Adel represents the voice of every Egyptian woman and/or mother who resists the uprooting and upending of their life and livelihood because of the nationality of their offspring or loved one’s kin or guardian; because of security policies that do not exercise the most basic rights of forcibly displaced people or children who hold their state’s nationality. We support the fundamental right of parents to remain with their children in the same country regardless of nationality, residence type, and economic status.
