Democracy and Free Speech
Like most people I watched the TV coverage of the democratic uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
Where people in their tens of thousands took to the 'Arab street' - in a show of support for greater political freedoms including the right to freedom of speech.
So imagine my surprise at a recent article in the Times - which reported that Amnesty International had interviewed 18 women who accused the Egyptian army of abuses - after they were detained for their role in the anti-government protests in March 2011.
The women were arrested after they protested in Tahrir Square in Cairo on March 9. They told Amnesty that they were abused and tortured - as well as forced to undergo 'virginity' tests.
"The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine. 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", said Major Imam a military spokesman.
Before adding:
"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. None of them were".
Seems like certain figures in the military have a peculiar idea of what democracy and freedom of speech - are all about.
Let's hope Major Imam and his cronies - are not the shape of things to come.
Where people in their tens of thousands took to the 'Arab street' - in a show of support for greater political freedoms including the right to freedom of speech.
So imagine my surprise at a recent article in the Times - which reported that Amnesty International had interviewed 18 women who accused the Egyptian army of abuses - after they were detained for their role in the anti-government protests in March 2011.
The women were arrested after they protested in Tahrir Square in Cairo on March 9. They told Amnesty that they were abused and tortured - as well as forced to undergo 'virginity' tests.
"The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine. 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", said Major Imam a military spokesman.
Before adding:
"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. None of them were".
Seems like certain figures in the military have a peculiar idea of what democracy and freedom of speech - are all about.
Let's hope Major Imam and his cronies - are not the shape of things to come.
