Sexually Assaulted in Cairo

Have you heard about this one?

Hundreds of Egyptians, many of them women dressed in black, rallied in central Cairo on Wednesday to demand the resignation of Habib al-Adly, the interior minister.

Activists said they held the minister responsible for the fact that police stood by last week while supporters of the ruling National Democratic party assaulted women demonstrators, sexually harassed them and stripped them naked in the street.

The attacks took place on the day Egyptians voted on a constitutional amendment to allow the country to hold contested presidential elections for the first time.

Activists from Kefaya, a movement which has been campaigning against a fifth term for Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's president, had congregated in front of the Journalists' Union to protest against the change, which they dismiss as a meaningless ploy to deflect American pressure for reform.

But they were set upon when police lines surrounding them parted to allow in several dozen thugs, some of them carrying sticks. Men and women were assaulted, but the women were singled out for sexual humiliation.{...}

{my emphasis}

Did you get that? The police in Cairo parted like the Red Sea during a protest last week and let in thugs who then sexually assaulted the women protesters, stripping them naked in public and then beating them.

Isn't that wonderful?

/sarcasm

While the assault is bad enough, it's the motive behind it that just disgusts me. Because we all know what will happen to some of these women. They will be beaten to within an inch of their life, if not killed altogether, by the male members of their families because the men need to regain their "honor." These women, through no fault of their own, have supposedly shamed their male family members. They are the ones who will be held responsible for the crimes of others. And it's all just an attempt to keep the women quiet. Because this will shut them up. In a society where the rape victim is held responsible for the rape, what other effect could this action have?

I believe we're seeing just what lengths the reportedly "harmless" Mubarak will go to to keep himself in power. And it's just going to get uglier from here on in.

Posted by Kathy at June 2, 2005 11:01 AM