Crisis in Tahrir

Writer Mona el-Tahawy details horrific sexual assault by Egypt police

| 24 November 2011 | Comments (11)

Mona El-Tahawy

CAIRO: Award-winning Egyptian columnist Mona el-Tahawy has recounted on her personal Twitter account the sexual assault at the hands of the Egyptian police after she was detained for nearly 12 hours on Thursday morning in Cairo.

The writer said she was blindfolded for at least two hours and questioned repeatedly.

She said that it was the “worst” sexual assault she had ever experienced.

“Besides beating me, the dogs of CSF subjected me to the worst sexual assault ever,” she said on Twitter.

“5 or 6 surrounded me, groped and prodded my breasts, grabbed my genital area and I lost count how many hands tried to get into my trousers,” she wrote, detailing her experience shortly after being released on Thursday early afternoon.

Tahawy was en route to a hospital, where she was going to have her arm x-rayed to determine the extent of the injuries she received.

She said that the police continued to grab and grope at her for hours during her detention.

At around 1 AM, el-Tahawy wrote on her personal Twitter account, “Pitch black, only flashing ambulance lights and air thick with gas Mohamed Mahmoud #Tahrir.”

She is one of dozens of journalists and observers who has been arrested in the past week of fighting, which has left many international rights groups concerned.

The violence, according to Bikyamasr.com medical sources, has left over 90 people dead and thousands of Egyptians injured in the violence, mainly on Mohamed Mahmoud street leading to the main Tahrir Square.

The 44 year-old was born in Port Said, but has since lived in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Israel, before settling in the US in 2000.

“I can barely imagine what my family and loved ones were going through those 12 hours-I know they were worried about me to begin with. Sorry,” she added.

BM

ShortURL: http://goo.gl/U5dTc

Tags: , ,

Section: Egypt, Latest News, Sexual Harassment, Women

Egypt in Crisis
Religion in Focus

  • Pingback: Frauen in Ägypten « Frauen-Internationalismus-Archiv

  • Barend

    She said that it was the “worst” sexual assault she had ever experienced.-she experienced- maybe the boy hiding behind hmm can read again? 
    People have to publish otherwise it happens again. This is what the Egypt time of change is about: respect through freedom of speech: 4 million people? 4 million ideas. Democracy. To be sexually offended for hours, blindfolded is torture, and if you would not mind that, you are just one of the people they fight against.

  • Tmv3

    There is NEVER any excuse for sexual assault…these guys are not men…not even animals do this to eachother. And shame on all those who commented here who say this was not bad…you people probably abuse your wives and children yourselves!

  • guest

    what was the questioning about? was this mentioned anywhere?

  • Pingback: Writer Mona el-Tahawy details horrific sexual assault by Egypt police – Bikya Masr | WorldWright's …

  • ana masri

    Since Egyptians can’t afford to marry, they are so sexually frustrated, they’ll grab anything, but “worst attack ever”….???  please….

  • Pingback: Sexual Harassement and Politics in Egypt… my homage to Mona EL-Tahawy… so sharp… | Duniamartix

  • Gsxrnj

    something does not make sense over here. i think she had a little too much to drink and was dreaming that this is happening to her.

  • Hmmm

    “The worst sexual assault ever” is being groped and grabbed? I mean, it is horrible, but that is just hyperbolic. She said on Twitter that she was thinking the entire time about the article she would write about it. Hmmm…. I wonder how many people going through horrible sexual assaults spend the entire time thinking about how to publicize it. 

    • Guest

      Responses like this one, and some of the others below, are part of the problem here.  Any assault would feel like “the worst” if it was happening to you.  It’s tragic that this happened, however it happened, to whatever degree.  It’s shameful that some people choose to use public forums to blame or discredit victims of sexual assault.  

  • Saturnsublime

    I am sorry to hear you went through such an atrocious ordeal.