Tunisian writer Amel Grami was deported from Cairo International Airport on Sunday and denied entry into Egypt, despite being invited to participate in a conference by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
According to a post by Grami on Facebook, after waiting for hours at the airport she was told that she posed a threat to Egypt's "national security" and would not be allowed to enter the country. Grami was not given any further details on why she is listed as a persona non grata by Egyptian security.
"When my pen is treated like the blade of the sword or the kalashnikov and treated like a threat to a country's national security, that is a strange thing. What sin have I made?" Grami wrote on her Facebook page.
Grami has been a contributing writer for the Egyptian newspaper Al-Shorouk in recent years, according to a report by Mada Masr, writing on topics such as the Arab Spring, the revolution in Tunisia and political Islam.
The decision to bar Grami from entering the country is nothing new for Egypt. In recent years there have been a number of writers, journalists and activists detained and deported at Cairo International Airport.
Kenneth Roth and Sarah Leah of Humans Rights Watch were deported from the airport in August 2014 and in December 2014 researcher and former diplomat Michelle Dunne was denied entry while en route to attend a conference in Cairo. It was later reported by Egypt's Foreign Ministry that Dunne had been denied entry for not having the proper visa.
Egyptian journalist Ismail Iskandarani was detained in December 2015 at Hurghada Airport and remains in detention. Iskandarani, who has conducted research on affairs in the Sinai Penninsula, was accused of belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and "disseminating false news".
