Egypt police hold 7 for Tahrir sexual assault
Print Edition
EGYPTIAN police yesterday arrested seven men for sexually assaulting a 19-year-old student during celebrations marking the inauguration of the country’s new president in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square the day before, security officials said.
The student has been hospitalized after she was attacked on Sunday.
Sexual harassment has been one of Egypt’s enduring social ills, prompting authorities last week to issue a decree declaring it a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.
The Interior Ministry, in charge of police, identified the seven in a statement, giving their ages between 15 and 49. It said they were arrested for “harassing several girls” but made no mention of the student. A policeman was injured while the seven were being arrested, it said.
No further details emerged from the police about Sunday’s attack. Video footage posted on social media purportedly shows the student completely naked, parts of her body bloodied as policemen struggle to escort her out of Tahrir Square where tens of thousands were celebrating the inauguration of Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi as the nation’s new president late into the night.
The video has shocked and created a stir, along with another clip posted on social networking sites, showing a correspondent for a private TV network reporting from Tahrir and telling her anchorwoman in the studio that there were several cases of sexual harassment in the square during the celebrations.
The anchorwoman laughs and says it’s “because they are happy”.
The anchorwoman, Maha Bahnassy of al-Nahar television, denied that her comment was in response to the harassment incidents reported by the journalist. “I was, along with my guests, commenting on people’s joy, not the harassment,” she said on her Facebook page.
There have been many incidents of sexual harassment during large gatherings of demonstrators in Tahrir in recent years. The square was the epicenter of the 2011 uprising that toppled the longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak and has since been the focal point of most large political rallies in the Egyptian capital.
The anti-sexual harassment decree from last week, issued by former, interim president Adly Mansour, amended Egypt’s current laws on the abuse, which did not criminalize sexual harassment.
The new law says those convicted face between six months to five years in prison, with the maximum punishment reserved for offenders holding a position of power over their victims, such as being the boss at work or being armed.
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