Founders of El-Nadeem Center with Aida Seif El-Dawla on the left. (Photo: Facebook)
Renowned Egyptian activist and co-founder of the Nadeem Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence Aida Seif El-Dawla was banned on Wednesday from travelling to Tunisia to attend a conference on the rehabilitation of torture victims in North Africa, according to a statement on the Nadeem website.
The statement did not state whether El-Dawla is facing any legal action.
In April, the health ministry attempted to shut down Nadeem Centre over what the ministry said was the NGO changing its activities from a “psychiatry and mental health clinic” to a “rehabilitation centre,” which requires a different licence.
Founded in 1993, the centre provides services including psychological support to victims of violence and torture and periodically issues reports on torture in Egypt.
Earlier this month, Azza Soliman, lawyer and head of the Centre for Egyptian Women Legal Assistance (CEWLA), and Ahmed Ragheb, lawyer and director of the National Community for Human Rights and Law (NCHRL), were both banned from travelling while on their way to attend international conferences.
The two activists were told that this was because of a judicial order, issued without their knowledge, involving a case regarding the alleged illegal foreign funding of a number of NGOs in the country.
In March, the justice ministry re-opened the case alleging that dozens of NGOs had received illegal funding from foreign governments and institutions, a case that dates back to 2011.
A number of prominent activists are involved in the case, including Hossam Bahgat, a journalist and founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Gamal Eid, a lawyer and founder of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), and Mozn Hassan, director and founder of Nazra for Feminist Studies, all of whom have been banned from travel.
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