Egyptian court suspends virginity tests on female detainees

[News_Editor]

Egyptian court suspends virginity tests on female detainees

2011-12-28 07:58:23 GMT+7 (ICT)

CAIRO (BNO NEWS) -- An Egyptian court on Tuesday suspended the practice of forcing female detainees arrested by the military police to undergo 'virginity tests', the Al-Ahram daily newspaper reported.

The verdict was returned on Tuesday morning after two women, Samira Ibrahim and Maha Mohamed, who had been detained in March, filed a lawsuit calling for the revocation of virginity tests at military facilities. The 25-year-old Ibrahim, who was among seven female protesters who were subjected to these tests, is the only one who has publicly given an account of the abuse she underwent.

The female detainees were subjected to virginity tests after military forces forcibly dispersed a sit-in at Tahrir Square on March 9, arresting several protesters. Some of the women told Amnesty International that they were beaten, given electric shocks, subjected to strip searches while being photographed by male soldiers, then forced to submit to 'virginity checks' and threatened with prostitution charges.

During Tuesday's session, hundreds of political activists gathered before the building of the Administrative Court in solidarity with the abused women, holding placards that read "Egypt's women are a red line." After the session, Ibrahim and a host of other protesters celebrated in Tahrir Square.

The case sparked widespread condemnation from local and international human rights groups. Shortly after the incident, Amnesty International called on the Egyptian authorities to bring to justice those responsible for ordering or conducting forced virginity tests.

Months after the incident, a senior Egyptian general admitted during an interview that women detained on March 9 at Cairo's Tahrir Square had been forced to undergo virginity tests. The general, speaking on condition of anonymity, justified the abuse by saying that the women "were not like your daughter or mine. These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters."

The general also said that the reason for the 'tests' was because "[w]e 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."

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