Following the decline of its power, Egypt’s political opposition has turned its attention increasingly to humanitarian issues. It now seems to be focussed on expressing a combination of desperation, frustration, and stubbornness – tempered with some hope.

Following the decline of its power, Egypt’s political opposition has turned its attention increasingly to humanitarian issues. It now seems to be focussed on expressing a combination of desperation, frustration, and stubbornness – tempered with some hope.

The opposition has become a small corner of a political scene that largely backs President Abdel Fattah el–Sisi. But there is still a small class of Egyptians following up on the trials of those caught violating the law regulating demonstrations.

But, despairing as those feelings are, they come out of empathy with political prisoners who felt it has become impossible to get out of the dark tunnel of the Egyptian justice system.

So they announced that they would mount peaceful political protests, expressing feelings of solidarity with 104 inmates under the slogan “Jibt Akhri” (I’ve had it) – a phrase from a letter written by prisoner Alaa Abdel-Fattah announcing his despair and his intention to go on hunger strike. This sparked a new campaign – the so-called “empty stomachs” battle.

Inside and outside prison

Abdel-Fattah wrote the letter before his recent release – on September 15 – saying, “I urge you to continue with the struggle, dream, and hope, which I have stopped doing.” The strikers were following the example of Abdallah al-Shami, the Egyptian al-Jazeera correspondent, who was imprisoned without charge and went on hunger strike for five months after the dispersal of the Rabia al-Adawiya sit-in. He was released on 17 June, 2013.

After the release of the three prisoners – Alaa Abdel-Fattah, Mohamed Abdel Rahman, and Wael Metwally, who had all been Shoura Council demonstrators – a number of journalists ended their hunger strike on 20 September.

The case against the demonstrators, who stood outside the Shoura Council in November 2013, is still ongoing, although the members of the court who issued verdicts of 15 years imprisonment for 26 defendants on charges of demonstrating without license, have stepped down.

Some journalists founded a group opposing the demonstration law, coordinating with other movements and political parties to release detainees and to increase pressure on the authorities to annul the law. The first step taken by this group was to call a two-day hunger strike on 21-22 September to campaign for the release of the detainees on a hunger strike.

Protesting the protest law

The special law regulating the right to assembly and peaceful demonstration in public areas was issued in November 2013. It was issued as a fait accompli, without the approval of the elected parliament or the government, and its constitutionality was contested by the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights before Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court.

When some of the activists, journalists, and other media employees went on partial or total hunger strike at the same time as the prisoners’ hunger strike, in what was known as the “empty stomach” battle, the movement became widely known, and the humanitarian side of it managed to overshadow its political nature.

Campaigns were launched and messages sent to the Egyptian presidency calling for the release of demonstrators. In addition, another campaign was launched to send emails to international non-governmental organizations to show solidarity with the detainees. Meanwhile, more and more people are joining the empty stomach battle every day.

Additionally, a campaign was recently launched sending messages to the Court of Appeal to demand the release of Mohammed Sultan, because of his deteriorating health and because the Tora prison administration refused to provide him with health care.

Sultan had spent the longest time on hunger strike of all the prisoners, starting on 26 January, 2014, though he is not imprisoned because of the demonstration law – he was imprisoned because the police really wanted to arrest his father Salah Sultan, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Opposition activists say that when they didn’t find the father, the police took the son instead.

A letter to the president

Norhan Hafthi wrote a letter to President el-Sisi asking him to save the life of her husband Ahmad Duma, an activist sentenced to three years for protesting against the demonstration law together with Ahmad Maher and Muhammad Adel, who also joined the hunger strike as well.

Duma is being tried before the Cairo Criminal Court in connection with a protest that took place in December 2011 in front of the headquarters of the Egyptian Council of Ministers.

In her letter, Hafthi asked the Egyptian president to issue a presidential amnesty for Duma, or a health-related amnesty because of the deterioration in his health due to his hunger strike, which has been going on since August 28, 2014. “I call on all state officials to forget for a while the responsibilities of their positions and to think as fathers, brothers, and ordinary citizens… Imagine your sons in the same position,” she wrote. “Let your mind and your heart know that laws were not made for revenge.”

Two days of action

The empty stomach battle was originally aimed at saving the lives of the strikers. Now it seems that this battle is becoming more crystallized and will form a broader wave of pressure. Participation in the two-day strike grew, and the “Freedom for Heroes” movement called for the release of the detainees so they could participate in these two days as well.

The campaign against the demonstration law said in a statement that the battle is “not to achieve personal aims or gains. It is to uphold the word of truth and justice and to allow them, others and future generations the opportunity to express their opinions freely without fear of being denounced by any of the state repressive apparatus.”

The empty stomach campaign, like other opposition movements, is still a battle focussing only on the humanitarian side. The question now is: can the opposition win?