In yet another sign of the poor treatment of women in Egypt, its military rulers attempted to defend so-called ‘virginity' tests that had been employed on female protesters during the Army's attempt to clear out central Cairo in early March. Top military brass officials said the “tests” were to prove these women “were not like my daughter or your's.” It is not the first time that the Egyptian authorities have used sexual intimidation against female protesters. Over the past decade, during the rule of former President Hosni Mubarak, police have been accused a number of times of sexually assaulting female detainees, journalists and citizens. The treatment of women in the country reached a head in February after CBS reporter Lara Logan was assaulted by dozens of men on February 11 during the celebrations of the end of the Mubarak era. The recent statements from the military are likely to stoke the fire even more in terms of women's role in the country's future. Maj. Amr Imam of the Egyptian army admitted to CNN that the virginity tests were indeed conducted. Surprisingly, he attempted to defend them. “The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine,” Imam told CNN. “These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found in the tents Molotov cocktails and (drugs). We didn't want them to say we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove that they weren't virgins in the first place. None of them were (virgins).” Another step back for women in Egypt, a country that attempts to prove to the world its forward thinking, but continues to maintain an almost substandard treatment of women in the country. In an Amnesty International report published in March, said that women were beaten, given electric shocks, subjected to strip searches while being photographed by male soldiers, then forced to submit to ‘virginity checks' and threatened with prostitution charges. It added that this sort of treatment is torture when forced upon individuals. “Forcing women to have ‘virginity tests' is utterly unacceptable. Its purpose is to degrade women because they are women,” said Amnesty International in March. “All members of the medical profession must refuse to take part in such so-called ‘tests'.” 20-year-old Salwa Hosseini told Amnesty International that after she was arrested and taken to a military prison in Heikstep, she was made, with the other women, to take off all her clothes to be searched by a female prison guard, in a room with two open doors and a window. During the strip search, Salwa Hosseini said male soldiers were looking into the room and taking pictures of the naked women. The women were then subjected to ‘virginity tests' in a different room by a man in a white coat. They were threatened that “those not found to be virgins” would be charged with prostitution. According to information received by Amnesty International, one woman who said she was a virgin but whose test supposedly proved otherwise was beaten and given electric shocks. “Women and girls must be able to express their views on the future of Egypt and protest against the government without being detained, tortured, or subjected to profoundly degrading and discriminatory treatment,” said Amnesty International. One need not look to mob-style attacks, which have occurred at nearly every celebration or holiday in the country for four years and beyond. The facts on the ground, facing everyday women in Egypt are appalling at best. Women have told Bikya Masr their stories of taking their attacker to the police station, only to be told by officers there that there really wasn't anything they could do; courts would take too long. “Can you imagine if this had happened to a diplomat's wife, or a foreigner?” one of the officers told a 30-year-old Egyptian woman. Egyptians have attempted to avoid the situation plaguing society for far too long. If it happens to a foreigner, they apologize, but if it happens to their sister, their mother, their girlfriend, their spouse, there has always been a tacit denial of any real problem. Instead of trying to save face now with Logan's case, what should be happening is a real dialogue, a real open discussion about the causes of sexual violence in society. Without one, Logan will not be the last victim of sexual brutality. According to a 2008 study published by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights (ECWR) 60 percent of Egyptian women and 98 percent of foreign women are harassed on a daily basis. The ECWR warned that harassing foreign women would lead to the loss of millions of pounds. A number of foreigners said they would never return to Egypt. 14 percent of all foreign women said they would either never return to Egypt or tell their friends not to visit. While the most recent incident should not damper the will of the Egyptian people to risk life and death to join forces in magnificent street demonstrations that rid the country of a dictator, it can no longer be avoided. Sexual violence is not an aberration to Egypt. It has a deep-rooted history that must not be avoided through apologies that activists in the country seem so quick to deliver. It has to be faced head on. BM
