El Nadeem Center: Still Going Strong

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

This has long been the rallying cry of the activists at El Nadeem Center, who have steadfastly resisted the state’s constant attempts to shut down an institution that stands firmly against one of the ugliest crimes the government commits against its citizens and anyone on its soil.

El Nadeem, dedicated to defending human rights without discrimination, has supported everyone, regardless of political affiliation. To El Nadeem, a person is a person—no matter their beliefs, skin color, or nationality. Anyone who has been a victim of torture found support, solidarity, and rehabilitation at El Nadeem. The center never distinguished between victims, whether they were Islamists, leftists, or the country’s poorest citizens; they were all treated with equal importance. El Nadeem indeed became a home and sanctuary for victims of torture, a place where they found people who stood in solidarity with them, medical care, psychological support, legal aid, and media advocacy. It’s hard to find a political movement in Egypt today that doesn’t include members who received support from El Nadeem.

Without El Nadeem, the state’s crimes—forced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings—might have stayed hidden in the darkness of the state’s cells, away from the public eye, making it nearly impossible to rally any resistance against these atrocities. El Nadeem has always been on the front lines, leading this fight every time.

Founded in the 1990s, El Nadeem refused to disregard state abuses, even as others did. Instead, it exposed the assassinations of Islamists in the name of the “war on terror” and shone a light on the horrific torture happening in the dungeons of State Security. Given the limited political freedom during those dark years of Mubarak’s military rule, this was no small feat.

The activists at El Nadeem Center have always been where they’re needed most, standing up for victims of state violence. After the revolution, El Nadeem’s reports continued to expose the crimes of the military council. For anyone who was fooled by the army’s role in the early days of the revolution, just a look at El Nadeem’s reports would have made it clear that the military was working to crush the revolution from the very start. El Nadeem’s fight continued before, during, and after the military coup, standing against the massacres carried out by the Sisi regime against Islamists and other opponents—even when many others were condoning these atrocities.

Today, in the absence of El Nadeem’s activists and during a holiday closure, a large security force raided the center and sealed its doors. They are determined to silence their victims’ voices. They don’t want their crimes to be exposed. They don’t want people to know the brutal reality of their rule. They fear the anger of victims and ordinary citizens, so they decided to shut down El Nadeem—the refuge and voice for torture victims, the place that gave voice to those whose cries were stifled by torture officers in the dark prison cells and the dim chambers of State Security.

The Revolutionary Socialists stand in complete solidarity with El Nadeem against this closure order and call on all political forces to oppose this decision and the repressive Associations Law that stifles civil society. Losing El Nadeem would mean losing even the minimal sense of safety we had when participating in acts of resistance, knowing there was a place to turn to and people to support us in the face of violations or torture.

Salute to the courageous activists of El Nadeem Center… No to the closure order. Down with the Associations Law… Down with military rule.