CAIRO — Expressing her feelings about the detention of Khaled Safwat — an activist who founded the online platform Egyptian Mothers’ Revolution Against the School Curriculum, which criticizes Egypt’s education system — Lola Ismail wrote on Facebook, "I am optimistic and pray to God to bring you back home safe and sound.”

Ismail is a member of this group, considered one of the largest mothers' groups on Facebook in Egypt. The Facebook group was closed down in March after its founder was accused of “spreading false information” about the coronavirus pandemic in schools.

Safwat’s lawyer, Amr Abdel Salam, told Al-Monitor that Safwat was charged with spreading false news on the outbreak of the coronavirus among students.

Egypt has had a number of mothers' groups on Facebook and WhatsApp since the mid-2010s. These mostly include mothers of students in international and private schools. They discuss curricula and teachers’ methods, exchange experiences on the schools and find ways to help children study. Over the last two years, however, they have been very vocal in protesting some changes in the education system, including Minister of Education Tarek Shawki’s plans for the 2018/2019 academic year. What particularly drew the ire of the mothers then was the decision to leave the teaching of English to later years instead of in the first years of primary schools. Mothers argued that early introduction to a foreign language was precisely why they had chosen international and private schools for their children.