Mona Seif – Egyptian Human Rights Activist

Mona Seif comes from a family of social activists and grew up tackling many social issues that were facing Egypt. He mother was part of the demonstrations during the Mubarak regime and her father was a human rights attorney that was imprisoned for many years. Her brother was also imprisoned for his blog Manalaa after he documented the many abuses of the Mubarak regime.

Inspired by her family, Seif became well known for participating in many dissident movements, before and after the Arab Spring in 2011. In fact, she co-founded the campaign called “No to Military Trials for Civilians”. In 2016, Seif was named one of the 100 most influential young Arabs in the world by Arabian Business.

The feminine name Mona is a variant transcription of the name Muna, which means “desires” or “wishes” taken from the plural of munyah in Arabic. While others believe that it is the Scandinavian short form of the name Monika, which is a version of Monica that has an unknown meaning. However, it is most likely of a Phoenician or North African origin.

On the other hand, there are some that think Mona is the anglicized version of Muadhnait that means “little noble one”, which is taken from the Irish muadh that mean “good” or “noble” combined with a diminutive suffix. However, the name is also associated with the Greek monos that means “one”, as well as, Leonardo da Vinci’s painting the “Mona Lisa” from the Italian contraction ma donna that means “my lady”.