Aya Hijazi

Egyptian American activist. She is pursuing a Master’s degree in Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School. She has studied law in Egypt and Conflict Analysis and Resolution in the United States. During the Arab Spring, she returned to Egypt where she established an NGO, Belady--An Island for Humanity. After the coup, police forces raided Belady and arrested Aya; she was imprisoned on fabricated charges for three years and was released after her case received international attention. She is now back in the US where she restarted Belady with a mission to defend human rights and freedom. She has written several articles for the Washington Post and has received a democracy award from the Project on Middle Eastern Democracy.