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Egyptian general admits 'virginity checks' conducted on protesters
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.
At that time, Maj. Amr Imam said 17 women had been arrested but denied allegations of torture or "virginity tests."
But now 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)."
This demonstration occurred nearly a month after Egypt's longtime President Hosni Mubarak stepped down amid a wave of popular and mostly peaceful unrest aimed at his ouster and the institution of democratic reforms.
Afterward, Egypt's military -- which had largely stayed on the sidelines of the revolution -- officially took control of the nation's political apparatus as well, until an agreed-upon constitution and elections.
The March 9 protest occurred in Tahrir Square, which became famous over 18 historic and sometimes bloody days and nights of protests that led to Mubarak's resignation.
But unlike in those previous demonstrations, the Egyptian military targeted the protesters. Soldiers dragged dozens of demonstrators from the square and through the gates of the landmark Egyptian Museum.
Salwa Hosseini, a 20-year-old hairdresser and one of the women named in the Amnesty report, described to CNN how uniformed soldiers tied her up on the museum's grounds, forced her to the ground and slapped her, then shocked her with a stun gun while calling her a prostitute.
"They wanted to teach us a lesson," Hosseini said soon after the Amnesty report came out. "They wanted to make us feel that we do not have dignity."
The treatment got worse, Hosseini said, when she and the 16 other female prisoners were taken to a military detention center in Heikstep.
There, she said, she and several of other female detainees were subjected to a "virginity test."
"We did not agree for a male doctor to perform the test," she said. But Hosseini said her captors forced her to comply by threatening her with more stun-gun shocks.
"I was going through a nervous breakdown at that moment," she recalled. "There was no one standing during the test, except for a woman and the male doctor. But several soldiers were standing behind us watching the backside of the bed. I think they had them standing there as witnesses."
The senior Egyptian general said the 149 people detained after the March 9 protest were subsequently tried in military courts, and most have been sentenced to a year in prison.
Authorities later revoked those sentences "when we discovered that some of the detainees had university degrees, so we decided to give them a second chance," he said.
The senior general reaffirmed that the military council was determined to make Egypt's democratic transition a success. "The date for handover to a civil government can't come soon enough for the ruling military council," he said. "The army can't wait to return to its barracks and do what it does best -- protect the nation's borders."
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)."
So what is a forced 'virginity'test if it's not assault?
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That statement above makes no sense at all. What does a woman's virginity or non-virginity have to do with sexual assault or rape and proving it?
Nice attempt at slander too … "Why do you care, people? Those girls were all sharameet in the first place, right?!"
What a sick bastard. He should be locked up and raped with a stick – by a bunch of women, of course.
Posts: 3587 | Registered: Mar 2006
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Really sick and unbelivable A thing that I can not even imagine that it could be true, even though I know it is true. Something so wrong in the way of thinking of many Egyptians . Makes me sad and angry
Posts: 523 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2004
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Military sources dismiss CNN report on 'virginity tests'
Military sources have dismissed a report aired on CNN in which a senior military official is quoted as saying the army checked the virginity of female demonstrators after they were arrested in Tahrir Square during the revolution.
In the report, the military official said the "virginity tests" were carried out so that the women could not later claim they were raped by the Egyptian authorities, adding that all of the women checked were not virgins.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces had on 28 March vowed to investigate the matter, but so far has not announced the results of any such investigation.
The women who claim they were subjected to the tests were arrested on 9 March as the military police cleared Tahrir Square of demonstrators with the assistance of thugs brandishing weapons. Many of those detained by the military reported being tied up, beaten and electrocuted. Some of them were later given prison sentences after expedited trials in military courts.
The international human rights advocacy group Amnesty International said in a statement today that those members of the military who ordered and conducted the virginity tests should be held accountable. Amnesty initially reported on the virginity tests in March, shortly after they took place.
In response to statements from the anonymous general to CNN that the female protesters were "not like your daughter or mine," the London-based rights watchdog said, “This admission is an utterly perverse justification of a degrading form of abuse.”
"The women were subjected to nothing less than torture,” Amnesty International said in its statement.
quote:Originally posted by mayabandu: That is absolutely sickening. I can't believe this still goes on.
Apparently it will take some time and effort to undo the psychological and physical torture that the Mubarak regime subjected Egyptian citizens to. This gross sexual abuse violation isn't limited to this incident. Egyptian police and security agencies (Kilab Al Dowla) sexually abused and tortured innocent women throughout Mubarak's rule. This is documented by the UN and other Human Rights organizations. They abused women in every sick perverted way you can imagine. If a woman's son committed a crime and they couldn't find her son, they would take the mother to the police station and do ungodly things to her in order for her son to surrender. Yes they would have relatives visit her and they would spread the word "they are doing this to your mother." This put pressure on the suspect to surrender and also pressure on family members to detain him for the police. If not the mother then sister, or aunt, it didn't matter as long as she was a close female relative.
Hosni Mubarak bred these atrocious and vile acts against Egyptian women. He empowered officers to pharoah like status and they acted with impunity.
Posts: 2275 | Registered: Dec 2009
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quote:Originally posted by mayabandu: That is absolutely sickening. I can't believe this still goes on.
Apparently it will take some time and effort to undo the psychological and physical torture that the Mubarak regime subjected Egyptian citizens to. This gross sexual abuse violation isn't limited to this incident. Egyptian police and security agencies (Kilab Al Dowla) sexually abused and tortured innocent women throughout Mubarak's rule. This is documented by the UN and other Human Rights organizations. They abused women in every sick perverted way you can imagine. If a woman's son committed a crime and they couldn't find her son, they would take the mother to the police station and do ungodly things to her in order for her son to surrender. Yes they would have relatives visit her and they would spread the word "they are doing this to your mother." This put pressure on the suspect to surrender and also pressure on family members to detain him for the police. If not the mother then sister, or aunt, it didn't matter as long as she was a close female relative.
Hosni Mubarak bred these atrocious and vile acts against Egyptian women. He empowered officers to pharoah like status and they acted with impunity.
and were brainwashed into thinking this was somehow right!
Posts: 15090 | From: http://www.egyptalk.com/forum/ | Registered: Jul 2004
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