Human rights defender, Maryam AlKhawaja enters Egypt after being threatened with deportation

Human rights defender enters Egypt after being threatened with deportation
Viral Chopra – 2 April, 2012

Maryam Al-Khawaja, Bahraini human rights defender has been allowed to enter Egypt after being held at Cairo international airport for several hours on her arrival early Monday morning. She had travelled to Cairo from Copenhagen via Warsaw to attend a human rights conference but Egyptian border authorities told her she had been blacklisted and would be deported back to her country. News of Maryam Al-Khawaja’s detention quickly spread around via Twitter. A number of prominent Egyptian activists and her acquaintances tried to make a contact to help her. Another Palestinian Blogger and human rights defender Majed AbuSalama was also held at the airport at the same time as Maryam Al-Khawaja, but he was immediately deported back to Gaza.

Maryam Al-Khawaja comes from a Bahraini family known for its political activities. She is the daughter of human rights activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, who is currently serving a life sentence in a Bahraini prison for his role in the country’s uprising, and sister to prominent blogger Zainab Al-Khawaja, better known as @angryarabiya. While there are counter statements that it was in fact a name mix-up at the border, Al-Khawaja was tweeting live @maryamalkhawaja and claiming that she was in fact denied access, and describing her treatment.
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