Women protesters in Egypt have accused the military authorities there of rape and sexual assault.
Last weekend 12 women were among 300 people arrested outside the Defence Ministry in Cairo.
Activist Aida Seif al-Dawla said female prison guards inspected the vaginas of some of the arrestees, on the pretext that they were searching for drugs.
Another detainee, Aya Kamal, told the Egyptian parliament’s Human Rights Committee that soldiers stormed into a mosque, where she and other protesters were sheltering, and took turns groping, insulting, smacking and spitting at them.
One hit her over the head with a club, knocking her unconscious for a few seconds.
“They insulted us girls, they opened the windows (of the van) and tried to reach out to touch our bodies and harass us.
“We were threatened with sexual assault, and we were threatened that if any one of us opened her mouth, she would be thrown to the soldiers outside, and she knows what would happen to her,” said Kamal.
These latest events will re-awaken concerns about the treatment of women by the Egyptian military.
As WVoN reported, thousands of women protested in March against the acquittal of Dr Ahmed Adel, who was accused of carrying out ‘virginity tests’ on women detained during the protests in Tahrir Square last year.
The protesters are demanding that Egypt’s interim military government give up power immediately.
The country is due to go to the polls on May 23 and 24 for the first round of presidential elections.
One of the leading candidates, moderate Islamist Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, called the arrests “arbitrary” and the abuses an “affront to human dignity and a disregard of laws and traditions.”
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