CovOps
 Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Über Serious
 |  Subject: Egypt's evil army: Women protesters were forced to have 'virginity checks' after being arrested  Sun Mar 27, 2011 2:38 am | |
| Women arrested by the Egyptian police during protests in Cairo's
Tahrir Square were subjected to forced 'virginity tests', according to
Amnesty International.Eighteen demonstrators were detained after army officers cleared the square on March 9 at the end of weeks of protest.Amnesty
today said that the women had been beaten, given electric shocks and
then subjected to strip searches while being photographed by male
soldiers.They were then given 'virginity checks' and threatened
with prostitution charges if medics ruled they had had sex, according to
the charity.
Salwa Hosseini, 20, said she had been arrested and taken to a
military prison in Heikstep where she was forced to strip and then
searched by a female guard.She told the charity a number of male
soldiers were watching through two open doors and a window and it was at
that point they took photographs. Miss Hosseini then went on to describe 'virginity tests' being carried out by a man in a white coat. She claims the women were threatened with charges if they were found not to be virgins.Meanwhile
Rasha Azeb, a female journalist who arrested in Tahrir Square at the
same time, claims that she was handcuffed and beaten by security forces.
She described being taken to a building within the Cairo Musuem
complex where she could witnessed other women being tortured with
electric shocks to the chest and legs.Miss Azeb was released after several hours along with a number of male journalists. The other women were sent to Heikstep.The group finally faced a military court on March 11 and were released on March 13. Miss
Hosseini was covicted of disorderly conduct, destroying private and
public property, obstructing traffic and carrying weapons.Amnesty has called for the Egyptian authorities to hold a full investigation into the alleged abuse.
A spokesman for the human rights organisation said that the actions were 'utterly unacceptable.''The
purpose is to degrade women because they are women,' he said. 'All
women of the medical profession must refuse to take part in such
so-called "tests."'The spokesman also said that one woman who
told the military she was a virgin and then failed the 'test' 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,' he added. 'The army
officers tried to further humiliate the women by allowing men to watch
and photograph what was happening, with the implicit threat that the
women could be at further risk of harm if the photographs were made
public.'The Egyptian authorities must halt the shocking and
degrading treatment of women protesters. Women fully participated in
bringing change in Egypt and should not be punished for their activism.'All
security and army forces must be clearly instructed that torture and
other ill-treatment, including forced "virginity tests", will no longer
be tolerated, and will be fully investigated. 'Those found
responsible for such acts must be brought to justice and the courageous
women who denounced such abuses be protected from reprisals.'
Testimonies
of other women detained at the same time collected by the El Nadeem
Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence are consistent with
Rasha Azeb and Salwa Hosseini’s accounts of beatings, electrocution and
‘virginity tests’.Former GMTV correspondent Lara Logan was
treated in hospital for six days after being sexually assaulted in
Tahrir Square while covering the demonstrations.
Now a reporter for American network CBS, she was attacked by a mob of 200 after being separated from security personnel.
ANCAPS: ANARCHO-CAPITALISTS |
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