Life in the New Egypt: "Virginity Checks"
This is what life in Egypt under military rule looks like for female political activists:
Cairo (CNN) -- A senior Egyptian general admits that "virginity checks" were performed on women arrested at a demonstration this spring, the first such admission after previous denials by military authorities.
The allegations arose in an Amnesty International report, published weeks after the March 9 protest. It claimed female demonstrators were beaten, given electric shocks, strip-searched, threatened with prostitution charges and forced to submit to virginity checks.
...[A] senior general who asked not to be identified said the virginity tests were conducted and defended the practice.
"The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine," the general said. "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)."
The general said the virginity checks were done so that the women wouldn't later claim they had been raped by Egyptian authorities.
"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," the general said. "None of them were (virgins)."
Not only are these so-called virginity tests an entirely degrading and humiliating practice, they also defy logic. Administering such a test implies that raping a virgin counts as a criminal offense, while raping a woman who has had previous sexual encounters (including women who have been raped previously) is no big deal. And to top it all off, these "virginity tests" are themselves tantamount to sexual assault. If nothing else, this despicable practice lays bare the contempt that those now in power in Egypt have for women. May the world take notice.
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Comments:
Dec '10
Re: Life in the New Egypt: "Virginity Checks"
How much of this sort of thing must we see before people will finally throw off their blinders and realize that all forms of fundamentalist Islam are barbaric and incompatible with the modern world.
Sharia and Freedom cannot coexist.
How many women must be brutalized before people "get" that?
I know Claire has great love for her "moderate" Muslim friends, but I am very much afraid that if she were to ever find herself in need of and reliant on that moderation, she might find herself sorely disappointed and in a serious bind.
Islam will be the axis that turns the world on it's head in this century, much like collectivism (fascism and communism) was in the last.
The sooner we all realize this, the sooner we can start to prepare for it, lest we find ourselves on our back foot like we did at the start of WWII.
Edited on May 31, 2011 at 10:38pmMar '11
Re: Life in the New Egypt: "Virginity Checks"
The world has taken notice. Current events have been observed, dubbed the "Arab Spring" and pronouced good. At ricochet however our indomitable editor Miss Berlinksi suggests Arab Climate Change might be more appropriate. I can't help but agree.
Edited on May 31, 2011 at 11:15pmNov '10
Re: Life in the New Egypt: "Virginity Checks"
Here in one sentence is what Obama doesn’t understand about the Middle East
Here is the sentence but do click the link and read the whole thing. It applies to a lot of other people, not just Obama.
Here’s the sentence: The changes in the region are producing more extremism, not more moderation.
Jul '10
Re: Life in the New Egypt: "Virginity Checks"
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Except for the more comprehensive approach to "medical exams" that is. Next up, an increase in the number of girls being "home-schooled."
I always wondered what spring looked like in a desert, now I know.
May '11
Re: Life in the New Egypt: "Virginity Checks"
Somehow that seems almost worse than rape.
Sep '10
Re: Life in the New Egypt: "Virginity Checks"
What a headline. After the...err.....testing, were the non-virgins treated differently. Is there a virgin/non-virgin box you check on the arrest report? In my big government world view, it is only a matter of time before this becomes the litmus test/justification for who gets raped. "Well, what have they got to lose at this point?" says the general.
I guess the arab Spring has sprung.
Re: Life in the New Egypt: "Virginity Checks"
You identify what to me is so disturbing about the tests in the first place. How do we make sense of this?
By this scoundrel's logic, either a rape of a non-virgin doesn't count as a rape or is justified in some perverse way.
This story makes me ill.
Jan '11
Re: Life in the New Egypt: "Virginity Checks"
So, where do we go with this? It truly is indicative of a sick culture (cultural subset?). I'd say cut off all aid we're currently borrowing to give to these maniacs.Some would argue that that would just further radicalize them or drive them further into the radicals camp but aren't they there now? Between the Gaza border, the natural gas supplies to Isreal, this kind of B.S., that reporter from CBS - enough is enough.
Oct '10
Re: Life in the New Egypt: "Virginity Checks"
Does anyone really think there is some logic to this or some saving grace in these actions...
Better still, how would one negotiate any peace or compromise to an fruitfull end with those who permit these deeds ?
Somehow, quite pointless...
May '10
Re: Life in the New Egypt: "Virginity Checks"
And they wonder why we side with Israel. Because they're the only people in the region that don't make our skin crawl.
Feb '11
Re: Life in the New Egypt: "Virginity Checks"
In that intégrité is evidently the sum of all righteousness, I'd suggest that all members of Egypt's new Ministry of Moral Affairs -- including its director General Ismail Etman -- be given a virginity test.
Herd checks are cheaper, so let's also do the Brotherhood.