DR.
AIDA SEIF EL-DAWLA

Background and work

Dr. Aida Seif el-Dawla is a psychiatrist, professor and co-founder of the El Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture. Established in 1993 in downtown Cairo, El Nadeem became one of the first specialised torture rehabilitation services in the Arab world, providing psychological, medical and legal support to survivors of police and prison violence and to women survivors of domestic and sexual violence. She has also been a senior member of the Nadeem-affiliated Working Group Against Torture in Egypt and has written extensively on the politics of psychiatry and the medicalisation of dissent.

Arrest and detention

She has never been formally arrested. Instead, the Egyptian authorities have pursued a sustained campaign of administrative and reputational pressure against her and her centre. The Ministry of Health ordered the closure of El Nadeem in February 2016 on a series of pretextual licensing grounds. The centre challenged the order in the administrative courts, and in May 2017 the State Council's commissioners issued an advisory report declaring the closure illegal — but the building was forcibly evacuated by police while the case was pending.

Conviction and imprisonment

No criminal verdict has ever been entered against her. She has, however, been placed under a travel ban since 23 November 2016, when she was stopped at Cairo International Airport and told she was either a defendant in, or a witness to, a criminal case. The case in question is the long-running Foreign Funding Case 173/2011 against independent NGOs, in which dozens of Egyptian rights defenders have been investigated, banned from travel and had their assets frozen for receiving foreign funding to do human rights work.

Current status as of 2026

She remains in Cairo. El Nadeem operates from new premises in a reduced capacity, having survived multiple eviction attempts. The travel ban under Case 173/2011 has not been lifted, and an assets freeze imposed in 2016 also remains in force. She continues to publish, lecture and provide clinical supervision in restricted forms. At 70, she remains one of the most senior and respected voices in the Egyptian human rights movement.