Salah al-Deen Hafez

Who is Salah al-Deen Hafez?

Salah Eddin Hafez, Arabic: صلاح الدين حافظ, b. 1938, died 16 November 2008, was an Egyptian writer and journalist.Married to Hala el hefnawy. At the time of his death of cancer, he was the General Secretary of the Union of Arab Journalists.

He was born in Egypt in 1938 and in 1960 graduated from the School of Arts with a degree in Journalism. Upon graduation he started working for both Al Akhbar and At Taawon before moving to Al-Ahram in 1965 and supervising the international edition of the daily called "Al Ahram ad Duwali" and was editor-in-chief of the magazine Dirasaat I'lamiyyah.

He was elected as General Secretary of the Union of Egyptian Journalists for periods 1968-1971 and 1973-1977. He was elected as General Secretary of the Union of Arab Journalists for one year in 1976 and after the headquarters were moved from Baghdad, Iraq to Cairo, Egypt, for more than a decade until the time of his death.

Salah Eddin Hafez was also a well-known independent writer with 12 books to his name that tackled subjects of the media, democracy, Arab-Israeli conflict and the Third World amongst others. His writings defended the civil rights of the disadvantaged or minorities, tackled many times issues of freedom of expression and social justice. His weekly articles every Wednesday morning were published in Al-Ahram and concurrently in 5 other Arab publications and was at many a time critical of the Arab regimes including those of Egypt.