Wednesday, March 27, 2013

New York Times Reports on Increase in Sexual Assaults in Brotherhood-Led Egypt

Here's the discussion over the past couple of years:

WESTERN LEADERS: "Hey! If we help Islamist organizations in the Middle East, we can topple secular dictators and bring about a renaissance in Muslim leadership!"

PEOPLE WHO'VE STUDIED ISLAM: "That's not going to work. If the Muslim Brotherhood takes over, women and religious minorities will be severely oppressed."

WESTERN LEADERS: "How racist and Islamophobic of you to say that! You don't understand the wonderful nature of Islam!"

(Later)

WOMEN AND RELIGIOUS MINORITIES: "Help! Help! We're being severely oppressed by the Muslim Brotherhood!"

WESTERN LEADERS: "Sorry, can't help you. Who are we to interfere in the affairs of Muslims? It would be racist and Islamophobic to object to your oppression."

PEOPLE WHO'VE STUDIED ISLAM: "We tried to tell you."

You know the problem has gotten bad when even the New York Times is forced to say something about it.

CAIRO — The sheer number of women sexually abused and gang raped in a single public square had become too big to ignore. Conservative Islamists in Egypt’s new political elite were outraged — at the women.

“Sometimes,” said Adel Abdel Maqsoud Afifi, a police general, lawmaker and ultraconservative Islamist, “a girl contributes 100 percent to her own raping when she puts herself in these conditions.” The increase in sexual assaults over the last two years has set off a new battle over who is to blame, and the debate has become a stark and painful illustration of the convulsions racking Egypt as it tries to reinvent itself.

Under President Hosni Mubarak, the omnipresent police kept sexual assault out of the public squares and the public eye. But since Mr. Mubarak’s exit in 2011, the withdrawal of the security forces has allowed sexual assault to explode into the open, terrorizing Egyptian women.

Women, though, have also taken advantage of another aspect of the breakdown in authority — by speaking out through the newly aggressive news media, defying social taboos to demand attention for a problem the old government often denied. At the same time, some Islamist elected officials have used their new positions to vent some of the most patriarchal impulses in Egypt’s traditional culture and a deep hostility to women’s participation in politics.

The female victims, these officials declared, had invited the attacks by participating in public protests. “How do they ask the Ministry of Interior to protect a woman when she stands among men?” Reda Saleh Al al-Hefnawi, a lawmaker from the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party, asked at a parliamentary meeting on the issue.

The revolution initially promised to reopen public space to women. Men and women demonstrated together in Tahrir Square peacefully during the heady 18 days and nights that led to the ouster of Mr. Mubarak. But within minutes of his departure the threat re-emerged in a group attack on the CBS News correspondent Lara Logan. There are no official statistics on women attacked — partly because few women report offenses — but all acknowledge that the attacks have grown bolder and more violent.

By the second anniversary of the revolution, on Jan. 25, the symbolic core of the revolution — Tahrir Square — had become a no-go zone for women, especially after dark.

During a demonstration that day against the new Islamist-led government, an extraordinary wave of sexual assaults — at least 18 confirmed by human rights groups, and more, according to Egypt’s semiofficial National Council of Women — shocked the country, drawing public attention from President Mohamed Morsi and Western diplomats.

Hania Moheeb, 42, a journalist, was one of the first victims to speak out about her experience that day. In a television interview, she recounted how a group of men had surrounded her, stripped off her clothes and violated her for three quarters of an hour. The men all shouted that they were trying to rescue her, Ms. Moheeb recalled, and by the time an ambulance arrived she could no longer differentiate her assailants from defenders.

To alleviate the social stigma usually attached to sexual assault victims in Egypt’s conservative culture, her husband, Dr. Sherif Al Kerdani, appeared alongside her.

“My wife did nothing wrong,” Dr. Kerdani said.

In the 18 confirmed attacks that day, six women were hospitalized, according to interviews conducted by human rights groups. One woman was stabbed in her genitals, and another required a hysterectomy. (Continue Reading.)

5 comments:

Radical Moderate said...

Amazing article and very telling

"How do they ask the Ministry of Interior to protect a woman when she stands among men?” Reda Saleh Al al-Hefnawi, a lawmaker from the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party, asked at a parliamentary meeting on the issue."

Yes how do these woman expect to be protected from Muslim men by Muslim men when they stand with Muslim men?

But there is some good news

"To alleviate the social stigma usually attached to sexual assault victims in Egypt’s conservative culture, her husband, Dr. Sherif Al Kerdani, appeared alongside her.

“My wife did nothing wrong,” Dr. Kerdani said. "

Dr Kerdani is a brave man, and a Man at that.

Joe Bradley said...

If the loss of a hand is just for a thief, CASTRATION is just for a rapist, plus it has the additional benefit of helping to reduce an inbred and mentally defective Muslim population.

Unknown said...

An illustration of the evil, woman-hating, lustful, diabolical nature of Islam enforced by Shariah law.

It reminds me of Adam whining to God, "It was the woman! She made me do it!" God did not fall for it, and neither should we! The Bible says Eve was deceived, she did not deceive Adam. Adam should have known better, having had more experience than Eve at that time. In this instance, the women are deceived into thinking they will be treated decently under Islam and by Muslim men, and they don't think like evil men. All the more reason to hold the men who hurt them responsible.

Anonymous said...

No pupil is greater than their master, when you're highest standard is muhammed, what can one expect except for his followers to act as degenerate and backwards as he did?

akairey said...

@ David post this please.....
http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3084/israeli_filmmaker_beaten_unconscious_at_french_film_festival