Friday 30 May 2008

Imploring Despots


This makes me kind of sick.

4 comments:

The Queen said...

Makes me sick too!

(pssst, what does it say?)

Basil Epicurus said...

From a mother's broken heart over her daughter, Israa Abdul Fatah.

TO

The heart of the president of Egypt, Mr Hosni Mubarak and the heart of his exalted wife, Suzanne Mubarak
and the heart of the minister of the interior, Mr. Habib il Adly

We plead with your excellency to look with some mercy towards the fate of my daughter, as her health is in constant deterioration in prison, even though she's been freed by the attorney general's ruling dated 14th April, 2008.

I implore you to show mercy towards my daughter and towards me and towards our hope of a future together.

Signed, Israa's mother.
Fatima Ahmed Rashed

Israa was a 27 year old who, somewhat naively, tried to organize a group on facebook to protest the rule of Hosni Mubarak. She was released a few weeks ago, and promptly thanked the authorities for acknowledging that she was misled in her actions, and not really punishing her.

The Queen said...

Wow. Where is this picture from? Is it from a newspaper or something?

Was she left in prison even after the Attorney General had released her?

How long was she away? I'd bet not long enough. I mean comeON. You know darn well that those facebook protest are very very dangerous! You can't have that going on in a safe country can ya?

Do you think the sappiness real or forced?

Basil Epicurus said...

Well, part of the sappiness is just the writing style of classical Arabic, but most of it is plain, ol' fashioned ass-kissing. The woman would have said anything to get her daughter released.

It's common in places like Egypt for the Attorney General to order her release, and the police not to comply due to a technicality (they say). That's why it's called the third world, and Amnesty International is always on their back for human rights abuses.