While reflecting on my human rights career thus far, I remember getting advice in passing on staying “detached” from my work, with no guidance on how to apply this in a practical manner. How does an activist remain engaged and passionate while also being detached? And is there a point at which we are too detached and then cannot empathize with the people for whom we are advocating?
In 2007, shortly after graduation, I was fortunate enough to work with one of my professors on a research project on women who go to courts to get divorce. As part of the research, I conducted interviews with lawyers and women who approached women’s rights associations, due to their inability to afford divorce costs. I do not remember being warned about the mixed emotions and personal stories that I would encounter and how that would affect me. At the end of that year, I started working at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), and the first file I worked on was monitoring and documenting violations of the freedom of religion and belief. But again, I was not warned about the heavy emotions. I had not received any training or advice on how to separate myself from my work, and that lack of preparation and awareness affected me for years to come.
I started drifting away from all of the religious practices that I used to perform, which connected me to the attackers.
