Living Archive
Defenders.
An open record of human rights defenders across the Middle East and North Africa. Every entry is a case file — dated, sourced, and kept current.
173
Records on
the open archive
87
Currently held
detained · sentenced · on trial
57
In exile or under
transnational repression
11
In memoriam
killed for their work
The Record
Filtered cases
Mohamed Mahmoud Ebrahim Shahin
An imam and community mediator in Turin for two decades, Mohamed Shahin faces deportation to Egypt after Italy revoked his residence permit…
Nashwa Al-Deeb
Opposition candidate who withdrew from Egypt's November 2025 parliamentary elections citing electoral fraud, vote-buying, and systematic irregularities in the Munira and Giza…
Ahmed Shihab-Eldin
Ahmed Shihab-Eldin was detained for 52 days after posting verified footage of a US military jet crash in Kuwait, then stripped of…
Malcolm Bidali
A Kenyan security guard and blogger detained in Qatar for documenting migrant worker rights abuses. Held in solitary confinement for nearly a…
Hafiz Haron
Hafiz Haron reports on police violence in Sudan. When he tried to report a burglary, officers beat him, then charged him with…
Medical urgencySamar Badawi
Samar Badawi challenged Saudi Arabia's male guardianship laws and led campaigns for women's right to drive. Arrested in July 2018, she was…
Abd Al Hamid Goura
Head of the Laghouat section of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights, Abd Al Hamid Goura was arrested at…
Said Abdelrazek
Said Abdelrazek converted to Christianity and was arrested from his Cairo home in July 2025. He was subjected to torture and held…
Ahmed al-Doush
Ahmed al-Doush, a British-Saudi business analyst, was arrested at Riyadh airport in 2024 while returning home with his family. He is serving…
Azza Soliman
Azza Soliman, a women's rights lawyer and founder of CEWLA, endured five years of travel bans and asset freezes in Egypt's foreign…
Ibrahim Mrikli
Ibrahim Mrikli was arrested in El Ayoun on 15 May 2020 and charged with insulting public servants, stone throwing, and violating quarantine…
Maâti Monjib
Maâti Monjib leads associations defending press freedom and investigative journalism in Morocco. Convicted in absentia in 2021 of threatening state security, he…
Hunger strike