A feminist, a lawyer and a lovely soul, Yara Sallam, the winner of the HRD Shield in 2013 for her work with Nazra for feminist studies and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, was arrested last night, along with 29 others, at the demonstrations against the protest law.

 The protests to free detainees Alaa Abdel Fattah, Ahmed Douma and others, turned violent and the police arrested Sallam along with Sanaa Seif, human rights activist and sister of Abdel Fattah, and 27 others, including three journalists who were released shortly after their arrests.

Sallam is a researcher in the field of human rights in general and women’s rights in specific. She became active in human rights since the age of 15, joining an initiative targeting children. She has then received two degrees in law, one from Cairo University and the other from Paris I University Pantheon Sorbonne in France. She also received a master’s degree in international human rights law at the Notre Dame University in the U.S.

Following her work with Nazra’s as the program manager of their Women Human Rights Defenders, Sallam joined the Egyptian Initiaitve for Personal Rights  (EIPR) as a researcher on transitional justice.