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| Africa North |
| Egypt general defends virginity tests |
| 2011-06-02 |
| [Beirut Daily Star] An Egyptian general has admitted that the military conducted forced "virginity tests" on female protesters in March, CNN reported, actions that have outraged Egyptian activists who called for demonstrations to condemn the incident. "The girls who were jugged were not like your daughter or mine," the U.S. broadcaster quoted the senior general, who asked not to be identified, as saying. "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." "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]," he said. Activists on online social networking sites scrambled to organize demonstrations to condemn the military's actions in the wake of the CNN report. "Women were in the front lines in Tahrir. They have always played a role and they deserve for their dignity to be regained," wrote one group of activists on their Facebook page. Activists and bloggers say they will hold a day of online protest Wednesday to voice their outrage, adding to criticism of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took control of the country from ousted President Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... in February. |
| Posted by:Fred |