Marwa Arafa is a freelance translator and used to provide humanitarian support for families who lost their breadwinners to arbitrary detention in rights cases. She was also member of Free the Children, an organization advocating for the freedom of detained children.
Ms Arafa was arrested on 20 April 2020, after state security agents raided and searched her home without a warrant. She was forcibly disappeared for 14 days, and appeared in front of the Prosecution on 4 May 2020, where she was assigned case 540 and interrogated. She was charged with funding a terrorist organisation and has remained in systematically renewed pre-trial detention exceeding the 2-year limit provided by Egyptian law.
Ms Arafa has been detained in poor detention conditions, and was deprived from a mattress for some time, which caused her severe back pain. At the time of her arrest, her daughter was under 3 years old. She has been prevented from being with her, which has caused her daughter trauma and growth issues.
In September 2024, prison authorities denied Marwa the opportunity to sit for her postgraduate exams