A virtual conference, parallel to al-Sisi ‘s Sharm al-Sheikh Conference “Youth Conference”, was held on the social networking sites, where Egyptian activists launched the hashtag #Al-Shabab Fein? (#Where_Have_The_Young_Ones_Gone?) The Hashtag was ordered the first on Twitter Trend charts.
For three days, activists on the social networking sites try to answer the question (Where are the youth?) by sharing stories and photos of Egyptian youth who are now detained in Egypt’s prisons, tortured, forcibly disappeared or killed by the Egyptian military regime.
In this context, Jack Shenker, a journalist, replied to the question saying, “Earlier this year: #Sisi addresses nation with banner reading ‘2016: Year of the Youth’ behind him, and declares “Don’t listen to anyone but me”.
He also pointed to the enforced disappearance phenomena in Egypt as it happens nearly each five days.
Mona Seif, a rights activist, replied that Egypt’s youth are in prisons, naming some prisons known for human rights abuses as al-Aqrab prison (Scorpion Prison) and al-Azouly Prison.
Samia Jaheen, a blogger, said that the Egyptian youth are spending the best days of their lives in prisons, such as Ayman who has spent 4 years of his 15-year sentence in prison.
Egypt has fallen under military rule after the 2013 coup led by the former Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi against Egypt’s first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi.
Since then, the Egyptian authorities have launched massive crackdown on political opposition, human right activists, and journalists.
According to international organizations’ estimates, Egyptian authorities are detaining about 40,000 of its opponents, suffering poor conditions and hundreds have died in detention as a result of torture and medical negligence.
