They Strike with Empty Stomachs

The verb to “strike” means to blow, to make an attack, or simply – when attached with hunger – a deliberate refusal to eat as a means of protesting against an oppressive authority. In short, the strikers hit the authorities with their resistance, with only – but powerfully – empty stomachs.

It began with Mohamed Sultan, an Egyptian-American engineer who returned home coming from the US to offer compassion and help to his ill mother –diagnosed with cancer – and brother. On August 27, 2013, the security forces broke into their house searching for his father; when they didn’t find him, they arrested Mohamed instead.

No charges were directed against Sultan, which is an obvious breach of the Constitution – issued January 2014 – that states clearly: no one is to be detained without a clear charge. He, like thousands others, was tortured and locked up without being able to meet a lawyer or know what exactly are his accusations. The Constitution clearly states that “No one is to be arrested without a warranty from the judge,” and “the detainee must be informed at once why he/she is being taken into custody, given the right to contact family and lawyer, and to begin the investigation in the coming 24 hours,” Article 54.

Sultan broke the recorded number of the Irish IRA prisoners’ hunger strike in 1981: Bobby Sands (died after 66 days of strike), Kevin Lynch (died after 71 days of strike), and Kieran Doherty (died after 73 days of strike), by reaching 235 days without eating. He is now in a serious condition; he was found on September, 16, 2014 in his cell bleeding throughout his mouth and unable to stand up or walk.

Ahmad Maher, the former general coordinator of 6^th of April Youth Movement, has also started an open hunger strike since September 15, 2014. He, Alaa Abdel-Fatah, and Mohamed Adel face a 15-year sentence, charged with illegal protesting. Maher declared on Wednesday, September 17,  in a press conference throughout a message sent with his brother, that he is going on a strike, saying: “Today, we don’t have no other option but to begin the Battle of Empty Stomachs, as we don’t have anything except our bodies to fight with in order to wipe away injustice. What is the use of our bodies, in the shadows of humiliation and injustice? And, what is the use of life being isolated from it, from my family and kids? My wife and children live hopelessly in the difficulties of another world outside the prison. What is the use of life feeling hopeless? I’m unable to give my kids good education or a normal life, unable to take care of my ill mother, or to share their worried and happy moments. I have no choice, since every other legal option had been tried and everyone else had used all ways of dialogue and advice.”

Abdel-Azim Fahmy, or Zizo Abdo, is one of the leading figures of the Egyptian political arena, especially in Cairo. In an interview with him conducted by the writer, the History teacher went into hunger strike as, says he, “an act of solidarity”:

-         Why have you started hunger striking?

-         To back the prisoners morally. Even if I couldn’t back them, at least I feel their pain.

-         When you were imprisoned in Al-Akrab strictly guarded jail, did you go in a hunger strike?

-         Yes, I and my friends used the strike as a means of demanding better imprisonment conditions. We actually went into speech and hunger strikes, until members of the prosecutor office came to investigate. After that, things in prison started to get better, a little bit.

-         What about your strike now?

-         It’s not easy as I have already low blood sugar and feeling exhausted. I used during the strike to read and write, while I couldn’t talk much. After 4 days of the strike the doctor told me to go no more in it because of a lacking blood sugar. My aim is not to commit suicide, it’s just moral solidarity.

-         What do you want in life?

-         What I want badly here in Egypt is the right to live normally and with dignity. I want justice not humiliation. I don’t ask the authorities anything because those who kill the innocents will not listen to any reason.

-         What are your dreams?

-         My dreams are very simple but so impossible in the government’s eyes. I dream of equal distribution of wealth, and that the ministries and government organizations would work for the benefit of our home and not for their own personal interests. I want all the Egyptians to smile all the time and for their dignity to be kept. I want to see developing projects and fair and powerful will to change to the better and for the majority of people.

-         What about your personal dream?

To live in a free, just state, founded on impartiality and respect for all.

In 13 September, 2014 Al-Nadeem Centre for Treating Victims of Torture and Violence stated that there are 186 hunger strikers inside and outside different prisons in Egypt. The 6^th of April Youth Movement says there are 41 persons joined the partial and total hunger strikes, during 17 and 18 of September, and the numbers are soaring. What is definite is that, as the strikers say it, the revolutionaries have “reached their limits” and no other thing can be done. Their bodies are their last weapon, their final means of resistance; they have no other choice but to “strike” the oppressive authorities with it, to declare their disdain for the injustice and insanity in this miserable homeland.

P.S.: the writer is also on a partial hunger strike.