Farkhonda Hassan, the former secretary general of Egypt's National Council for Women (NCW), has been banned from travel by Egypt's Illicit Gains Authority, the state-run MENA news agency reported on Sunday.
Hassan went to Cairo International Airport on Sunday for a flight to Abu Dhabi. While waiting for her flight, she was notified by airport authorities that she had been banned from leaving the country.
The charges against Hassan remain unknown. However, she told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the travel-ban decision had not been made by the public prosecutor. She added that she is currently seeking certain missing documents, and that after finding them, she will be allowed to travel freely.
Hassan was a close friend of Suzanne Mubarak, the wife of former President Hosni Mubarak. Anti-Mubarak feminists accuse her of promoting the president’s wife and falsely portraying her as an advocate of women’s rights.
Hassan was nominated as a member in the dissolved Shura Council, the upper house of parliament, in which she advocated a quota system for female parliamentarians.
Following the ousting of Hosni Mubarak, an official committee was formed to investigate illicit gains by members of the former regime.
