A doctor accused of carrying out forced “virginity tests” on female Egyptian protesters has been acquitted by a military court. Ahmed Adel was cleared after the judge found contradictions in witness statements. The case was brought by Samira Ibrahim, who said the “tests” were carried out on female protesters who were detained during a protest in Tahrir Square in March 2011. Ibrahim wrote on Twitter that the verdict had stained the honour of Egypt and she would carry on until she had “restored Egypt’s rights”.
Twelve prominent Egyptian activists, including Wael Ghonim and presidential hopeful Bothaina Kamel, have reportedly been referred to a military court on charges of attempting to bring down the state and inciting hatred against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). Egypt’s military leaders have faced widespread criticism since they came into power after the fall of Mubarak. Activists working with the No Military Trials Campaign have been campaigning on behalf of 12,000 civilians tried and imprisoned by the military, and report that only 2,613 civilians have been released.
Egypt’s secretary of education has instructed educational institutions to prohibit students from engaging in political activities.
The prohibition is understood to include taking part in political debates, writing articles, joining demonstrations, and setting up blogs. The Education Secretary’s announcement comes on the heels of escalating legal and electronic assaults that target Egyptian children who show an interest in future reforms to the political system of their country.
The case of Ayaa and friends
Ayaa is a 14 year old student. With other Egyptian youngsters she set up online activist group Revolution Under Age or “Thawra mama’hash bitaqa”. Their ages range from 14-16 and their backgrounds represent the range of religious and social groups of their country. Revolution Under Age has one purpose: to champion civil freedoms. Through art and words, these youngsters express their views on what they believe to be the threat of a return to the oppressive political culture that existed in Egypt before the Revolution un Tahrir Square. Although most have never met, these internet friends all want a civil democratic government that represents an egalitarian society.
In mid February, Ayaa and Ali Hisham, another 14-year old founder of the blog, appeared in a popular TV programme, Children of the Arab Spring. Also appearing in the programme were 9-year old Ali Hani and 17-year Mazen Hilmy. The four urged continued activism, saying this alone could prevent a return to the corruption of the past. Ayaa, whose parents both have a military background admitted that she was never allowed to join demonstrations. However, Ayaa and her fellow young guests of the programme rejected the continued rule of their country by the Military Council SCAF.
The youngsters also discussed the contents and approaches of Egyptian education. They noted that in their schools history, religion, and other subjects central to Egyptian identity were all geared to glorifying the rulers. They felt that questions were often discouraged, that school officials did not approve of dialogues. The TV series alarmed military rulers and those who defend the political culture that these young people hoped to change.
There are more and more young people like Ayaa and her friends in Egypt. In order to quash the example that their voices may set, the state apparatus went on an all fronts offensive against Egypt’s young people who dare to express political views. To further sustain its assault against adolescents, the state seeks to intimidate their parents and any media outlet that associates itself with young voices. Two lawyers with close ties to SCAF and former President Mubarak filed a complaint against the presenter of the programme to the Public Prosecutor. The complaint accuse him of abusing children by engaging them in political debates. Mubarak’s lawyers described the programme as the devil’s idea aimed at instilling novel standards in future generations. Children’s exposure must be restricted to children’s topics, the complainants noted. Other SCAF/Mubarak voices in the media repeated similar accusations in condemnation of the programme’s makers.
Yet more worrying, however, is the daily war of intimidation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blog sphere, and email accounts directed at young Egyptians who campaign for civil freedoms and against the continued rule of the Military Council SCAF. The State’s electronic militias target their websites and use fake accounts to bombard the children’s Twitter and Facebook pages with abusive messages. The electronic militias, or electronic committees, as Egyptians now call them, were first set up by the party of the ousted President Mubarak. The ruling party’s Media and Youth officials ran their operations. Their official purpose was to reach younger Egyptians. In the case of Ayaa and her friends, they receive messages describing them as traitors soiled by Western ideas, and with a barrage of obscene insults. In the past week, young activists received a threat from an email account named “mubaraksons”.
In late 2010 younger Egyptians used the electronic media to organise themselves into what became the Tahrir Square Revolution. Now these electronic state-sponsored militias appear to be a key player in the struggle between two political cultures competing to decide the shape of Egypt. The keenness with which SCAF is using the might of the state apparatus to pursue the children of its country is cause for concern, and not only to groups that defend freedom of speech.
Haifaa G Khalafallah is a former Middle East Editor for Index on Censorship
A Cairo military court on Sunday heard witness testimony in a case against a soldier who allegedly performed “virginity tests” on seven female protesters on 10 March 2011.
22-year-old Samira Ibrahim filed a lawsuit against the military doctor whom she accuses of conducting the tests on her and six other female detainees near Tahrir Square. In December, Ibrahim won an earlier case against the Supreme Council of the Armed Force (SCAF) when a Cairo Administrative Court ruled that virginity checks should not take place again in military prisons. According to human rights lawyer Hossam Bahgat the landmark ruling was the first of its kind against the military and was “the first crack in the SCAF’s impunity.”
In this second case, the defendant has denied performing the tests, insisting that he had simply asked the detainees if they were virgins rather than subjecting them to physical tests.
In Sunday’s court session, Rasha Abdel Rahman, a protester who claims to have undergone a virginity test after she was arrested on 9 March 2011, offered the court a graphic description of her ordeal. Abdel Rahman said she had been strip-searched by a female prison guard in an exposed space where the door and windows were left wide open. According to Abdel Rahman the doctor performed the test as soldiers walked past, she was threatened with beatings and electrocution if she refused to comply.
“Imagine if you, your daughter, sister or wife were subjected to such violation?” Abdel Rahman asked in a video she had earlier posted on YouTube. She says the traumatic experience continues to haunt her.
Other witnesses in the case included human rights activist Mona Seif, founder of the No to Military Trials campaign and Heba Morayef, a Human Rights Watch researcher.
They testified that Generals Mohamed El Assar and Hassan el Ruweiny had described the tests as a routine procedure in military prisons. Explaining that during official meetings El Assar and el Ruweiny described the tests as a “defensive measure” so that the women could not later claim they had been raped or sexually violated while in prison. Amnesty International also sent a written testimony citing an acknowledgement from a third general that the tests had been performed.
On 27 May 2011 in an interview with me on CNN, a senior military general admitted for the first time that virginity tests were performed on the female detainees. At the time, CNN did not disclose the general’s name. While testifying in court Sunday, I revealed my source was General Ismail Etman, who at the time was Head of the Armed Forces Morale Affairs department.
The court also heard from the defendant’s lawyers who claimed Abdel Rahman’s story did not match Ibrahim’s earlier story. The defence went on to point out that the other witnesses all worked for “foreign organisations”— suggesting that these organisations had hidden agendas, an allegation which has been frequently repeated by SCAF and government officials in recent weeks.
Ibrahim’s lawyers described the court session as a theatrical drama and a farce saying that the verdict was probably predetermined. The lawyers added that the case should have been referred to a civilian court to guarantee a fair trial.
“However, we are putting up a fight in order to reveal the truth,” Hossam Bahgat told reporters gathered outside the Nasr City military courthouse.
The court adjourned until 11 March when a verdict is expected.
