Alaa Abd El-Fattah

Who is Alaa Abd El-Fattah?

Alaa Abd El-Fattah is an Egyptian blogger, software developer, and political activist. He is known for co-founding along with his wife Manal Hassan, daughter of activist Bahi El-Din Hassan, the Egyptian blog aggregator "Manalaa" and "Omraneya", the first Arab blog aggregators that did not restrict inclusion based on the content of the blog. In 2005 the "Manalaa" blog won the Special Reporters Without Borders Award in Deutsche Welle's Best of Blogs competition. He has been active in developing Arabic-language versions of important software and platforms. He is currently imprisoned in Egypt for allegedly organising a political protest, an activity that became illegal in November 2013 with a new anti-protest law.