Even in exile, Egyptian journalist Basma Mostafa cannot escape her country’s grip: surveillance, intimidation, and threats have trailed her from Cairo to Germany. In Geneva, she tells a story that exposes the growing reach of transnational repression. When we spoke with Mostafa in the discreet conference room of a Geneva NGO one hot summer’s evening, nothing in her smiling face betrays the constant fear that haunts her. Yet the Egyptian investigative journalist exiled in Germany has been the victim of constant threats, pressure and surveillance from her country of origin. Today, Mostafa typifies the struggle against what is known as transnational repression, a worldwide phenomenon involving various intimidation tactics aimed at silencing critical voices among political exiles. Nothing, however, suggested at the beginning that she was going to have to take on this role. >> To find out more about how transnational repression manifests itself in Switzerland, read our article on the ...
