CAIRO: The head of Egypt's military judiciary asked media on Wednesday to not cover the current cases in front of the military courts after the “virginity tests” case of Samira Ibrahim has “caused controversy” for Egypt. During the last session of the case, two female prison guards gave their testimonies, saying that the tests were in fact merely a question of “who is married and who is a virgin.” The women said it was out of “medical concern” for the arrested women in case one of them was “pregnant.” They said the doctor never ordered any woman to take off her clothes, instead they asked them verbally who was and wasn't a virgin, and asked them to stand in two lines, one for those who are and one for those who are not. Ibrahim, the only woman out of the dozen who were arrested and subjected to the virginity tests is the plaintiff in the case. The next court session is scheduled for February 13 and expected to draw attention from press and the activist community as well as from women rights advocates in the country. Her case has embroiled activists, especially young women in the country, who have turned to politics in greater number. For Hamda, a 27-year-old doctor from Aswan, in Cairo for meetings at the Doctor's Syndicate, Ibrahim is a symbol of Egypt's revolution. “She gave me the strength to fight and battle for what is right,” the young woman told Bikyamasr.com on Monday morning. “We are all Samira because we women have tough life in Egypt.” Ibrahim filed a lawsuit against the doctor, who works at a military facility, and has accused him of forcing her to undergo a virginity test last March, when she and other female protesters were arrested in Cairo's Tahrir Square during a sit-in and taken to a facility. The women were forced, in front of dozens of other soldiers, to take down their pants and allow a doctor to examine them. When Ibrahim asked for the procedure to be done in private, she was assaulted, Ibrahim said. The military court has been charged the doctor of committing a “crime against modesty,” and “negligence of the obedience of the military orders.” Rights groups have told Bikyamasr.com that by using these charges, it eases the crimes from felony by physical assault to indecent misdemeanor, which is punishable by a fine or imprisonment of no more than one year. Local groups have condemned the continued protection of the leaders and members of the armed forces from any accountability for crimes committed against civilians. Ibrahim described the decision to postpone her case as a “total mess and farce.” The lawsuit was filed by Ibrahim with the assistance of lawyers from the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and the Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture. Although dozens of young women were subjected to the tests on March 9, the 25-year-old Ibrahim is the only one who has spoken out about the incident and filed a lawsuit against the military rulers. Human Rights Watch interviewed Ibrahim and another victim, Salwa al-Hosseini, and reviewed the testimony of two others obtained by doctors at the Nadim Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture. All four concurred in their statements that on the morning of March 10, two officers went into the prison cell holding the 17 women and asked them who among them was married and who was not. “Then they told the seven of us that they were going to examine us to see if we were really virgins. They took us out one by one. When it was my turn they took me to a bed in a passageway in front of the cell.” “There were lots of soldiers around and they could see me. I asked if the soldiers could move away and the officer escorting me tasered me. The woman prison guard in plain clothes stood at my head and then a man in military uniform examined me with his hand for several minutes. It was painful. He took his time. It was clear he was doing it on purpose to humiliate me.” “I was beaten, electrocuted, and forced to strip naked in front of male officers,” Ibrahim told Human Rights Watch. The official complaint before the Administrative Court states that Ibrahim “was exposed to the ugliest forms of humiliation, torture and a violation of the sanctity of her body.” In a court hearing on October 25, the State Council lawyer denied this allegation and called for the dismissal of the case based on lack of evidence. The case, however strong in many corners of Egyptian society, received little local media coverage, angering and saddening Ibrahim. “It breaks my heart that international outrage over my case is stronger than that of my fellow Egyptians,” Ibrahim said. Violations against women are therefore hugely underreported in Egypt – one recent report from 2003 found that as many as 98 percent of rape and sexual assault cases are not reported to authorities. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/IoOiC Tags: featured, NoMilTrials, SCAF, Trials, Virginity Section: Egypt, Features, Latest News, Media, Women
