‘Children for Freedom’ Launches New Campaign

‘Children for Freedom’ Launches New Campaign

Zahraa Khairat Al Shater, the coordinator of the association of Children for Freedom, is sending so many e-mails to her friends in several Egyptian governorates and outside Egypt, as she is launching an online campaign for which she helped sons of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) detainees choose a slogan: I Need Dad.


Zahraa, daughter of the Egyptian reformist Khairat Al-Shater who was referred among forty Egyptian MB reformists to a military tribunal 8 months ago upon a decree issued by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, is currently working with children of the MB detainees for moving the issue of their fathers and send it to as many people as they can.


Al Zahraa Khairat Al Shater is wife to reformist Ayman Abdul Ghani, a young man who is also among her father referred to the military court and both are inside president Mubarak”s prisons.


” We try to send our issue to all peoples in a positive and peaceful way ” said Zahraa to Ikhwanweb, adding that the children try to reflect the suffering they feels especially as the period of detention of their fathers, 8 months, is still on the increase and while the month of Ramadan is approaching, “a month in which all the Muslim family traditionally meet in most worships and activities”, according to her.


The daughter of Al-Shater, the second deputy chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood, adds this ongoing detention that deprives them from their fathers all over this period, and the scarcity of moneys, have had a deep impact on the children, making them work more and more to spread the cause of their fathers. She points out that the summer vacation of the children of the Muslim Brotherhood detainees wasn’t for fun like other children who enjoy it with their parents. They spent all their time in visiting their detained fathers inside places which aren’t suitable for human use, and attending court sessions that saw trials of the Egyptian reformists.


“We want all people to be aware of this issue and know the suffering of our sons so as to rally as much local and international solidarity as we can” adds Zahraa Khairat Al Shater.


The new electronic mailing campaign is a main activity of the Children for Freedom which was established shortly after the unjust detention of Egyptian MB reformists and referring them to a military tribunal. This virtual activity aims at sending e-mails and SMSs to as much people as they can.


Other activities carried out by the Children for Freedom included paying a visit to Dr. Ahmed Fathi Sorour, the People”s Assembly speaker, but he refused to meet them under the pretext of having a busy schedule and he can’t talk with them about the issue of their detained fathers.


The children collected also many signatures on an appeal from supporters of the issue of the MB reformists who are transferred to the military court. The children of the forty reformists established mobile art exhibitions in distinguished parks in governorates of Cairo, Alexandria and Dakahlia.


“These children faced tragic moments in which they saw their parents detained in front of their eyes, and they asked at that time: why do they detain them, mother?!”, said wife of the reformist Ayman Abdul Ghani, pointing out that” we as members of the Muslim Brotherhood group raise up our children on peaceful values. We found that our children got confused and we feared that they may adopt a negative trend, especially after their fathers received court acquittals and the Egyptian prosecution declined to release them. They were obliged to respect the Egyptian justice at that time!!. We found that our peaceful and little values on which we raised them began to collapse for such irresponsible demeanor of the authorities.


“We thought of establishing an association through which the children can do something and show their principles in a positive way and to express themselves”, said Zahraa


“Our activities mainly stem from this principle, giving our children the chance to show their peaceful values”.


Al Zahraa adds:” We want to show them another important value in life: That whatever the injustice you face, defend yourself and work for showing your ideology in a civilized and peaceful means, and whatever the tough conditions and heavy pressures you face, do not abandon your peaceful method.


Zahraa, daughter of the second deputy chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood group wished that such activities would ease their children’s suffering and longing for their detained fathers.


“The period of detention has become so long, and our children have the same rights like other children” she said to Ikhwanweb.