Woman prisoner in Egypt sells knitted handbags for £6 each

#mohamedMorsi #Egypt #AsmaaHamdy #handbags Her name is Asmaa Hamdy and she was a supporter of Mohamed Morsi, former President of Egypt. She was imprisoned for a period of five years for protesting during the unrest flowing the ouster of Morsi and she is spending her time behind bars knitting and selling handbags.
She is a student of dentistry and was jailed for protesting against the removal of Egypt’s first freely elected president, and she has been kept busy knitting woolen handbags – her message is ‘imagination is free’ and her “Made in Prison” line is proving popular. She actually began knitting the handbags for her friends and family and then fellow prisoners asked her to make some for their relatives.
Over this period, she has attracted local media coverage and is taking orders from the public – many of the orders come via Facebook. She has fallen into a routine. Whenever her family visits, they bring for her one kilogram of wool. Two weeks later, she hands over the finished articles – and receives more wool for the next batch. The line of her products include scarves, bracelets and knitted pencil cases.
The prison authorities do not mind her selling the bags, but insist on removing the “Made in Prison” label before they leave the prison.
Incidentally, she was one of hundreds of Egyptian university students who had been jailed for protesting at the removal of Morsi in July 2013. The student unrest had severely disrupted campus life during term time and the state fought back. As per reports, at least 14 students died while 500 were expelled and over 2,000 sent to jail. Twelve of them were jailed for 17 years for their alleged involvement in violent campus protests in November 2013.