She joined and co-founded a number of opposition groups in Egypt since 2001 and was the senior advisor to Presidential candidate Abdel Monem Abu El-Fetouh in 2012. She serves on the boards of a number of Egyptian civil society organizations. Her publications and political activism focuses on social movements and civil society groups including; labour, pro-democracy groups, women, and Islamists. El-Mahdi is a frequent commentator on AJE, BBC, CNN, ABC and writes op-eds for both Egyptian and international newspapers.