Basma Mostafa

I don’t arrive blank. I come with memory, history, and voice.
From the margins — I speak.
Exile sharpened my understanding of power.
I organize, I advocate, I speak — not just for myself, but for others still silenced.

Who I Am

I didn’t enter journalism with a dream or a grand mission.
It began with fear — with a daughter searching for her disappeared father in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.In 2011, after Egypt’s revolution, my father went missing for two weeks. We later learned he was held in a military prison, facing trial. I was a third-year university student in a small town, four hours from Cairo, with no idea how to navigate the system or make his story heard. I went to the square not knowing who to speak to. It was the journalists who helped me — who carried my voice when I had none. Their words were the only way I knew my father still existed.That’s how journalism became my path.
Not a pursuit of glory, but of survival — a way to understand power, and be a voice for someone else, the way someone once was for me.

Today, I am an award-winning Egyptian investigative journalist and human rights defender, living in exile in Berlin. My reporting has exposed torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings. One of my key investigations revealed the extrajudicial killing of five men falsely blamed for the murder of Giulio Regeni, helping shift international attention toward the real perpetrators.Because of my work, I was arrested three times between 2016 and 2020 — the last time while pregnant. I was charged with “joining a terrorist organization” and “spreading false news,” common accusations used by the Egyptian regime to silence dissent. After four days in detention, and following a wave of national and international solidarity, I was released — but the message was clear. I had to leave. Exile was not a choice; it was the only way to survive and protect my daughters.My journalism appears in Middle East Eye, Tagesspiegel, taz, Mada Masr, and beyond.
It has been cited in international human rights reports and global media. My investigations now extend to regional conflicts, including war crimes in Sudan.

Selected Work

Storytelling Through Exile

Alongside my written investigations, I also explore exile and memory through sound and film. I hosted Podcast 11, a narrative audio series on political erasure, displacement, and survival.I’m also co-directing a feature-length documentary — a self-portrait unfolding between my village and Berlin. Through personal archives, unsent letters, and unspoken grief, the film traces identity, loss, and the quiet resistance of remembering. Not a heroic narrative, but a search for wholeness after rupture.

Beyond Journalism

Law and Democracy Support Foundation e.V.

I am the co-founder and Program Manager of the Law and Democracy Support Foundation e.V., a civil society organization based in Berlin and founded by exiled Egyptian human rights defenders.
The foundation works to promote the rule of law and democratic institutions by defending freedom of expression, political participation, access to information, digital rights, and the right to a fair trial.
Our tools include education, public awareness, legal documentation, and international advocacy — including engagement with UN mechanisms, submissions to the European Union’s human rights bodies, and collaboration with transnational civil society networks to push for accountability and protection.
A core focus of our work is on exile as a political condition: we monitor transnational repression and support diaspora communities from the Global South as carriers of collective memory and resistance.
We reject narratives that reduce exiled defenders to victims. Instead, we view exile as a space of agency — for building strength, reimagining politics, forging cross-border solidarities, and producing knowledge from a place of vulnerability and resistance.

Advocacy Against Transnational Repression

I play a leading role in documenting, exposing, and challenging transnational repression — not only as a survivor of it, but as a strategist and advocate.
Through years of consistent work, I have brought public and institutional attention to how authoritarian regimes extend their violence beyond borders, targeting exiled journalists and dissidents through surveillance, threats, digital harassment, and intimidation.My documentation and legal complaints in Germany contributed to the first-ever public recognition by the German Federal Government of transnational repression against a journalist in exile. I engage directly with German and European policymakers, UN mechanisms, and civil society coalitions to demand accountability, structural protections, and lasting political recognition of these cross-border threats.Thanks in part to sustained advocacy efforts I’ve been part of, Germany’s 2025 coalition agreement included, for the first time, a commitment to firmly address transnational repression — marking a crucial step toward systemic protection and political accountability.But my work goes beyond exposing violations. I actively challenge the dominant narrative that portrays exile as a space of safety. I advocate for a more honest definition of exile — not as refuge, but as an extension of repression used to silence critical voices abroad.At the same time, I push for a shift in how exiled journalists and human rights defenders are perceived: not as passive victims, but as political agents, knowledge producers, and individuals whose voices matter — people who carry with them lived histories, contexts, and the power to effect change.

Awards|Nominations

My journalism and storytelling have been recognized with national and international awards for investigative excellence, narrative depth.
- Egyptian Press Syndicate Award (2018)
- ARIJ Award Finalist for Best Investigative Report in the Arab World (2018)
- Gold Medal – The Telly Awards (2022)
- True Story Award Nominee (2024)

Fellowships

I have received fellowships and support from leading international institutions committed to press freedom and human rights, including:
- The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism – University of Oxford
- Cambridge University
- Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
- International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)

Mentions

Contact

I'm open to collaborations, interviews, speaking invitations, or just thoughtful dialogue.
If my work resonates with you, or if you’d like to connect around journalism, exile, or advocacy — feel free to reach out.