Editor’s note: Isobel Coleman may be the writer of «Paradise Beneath Her Feet» and a fellow that is senior U.S. international policy in the Council on Foreign Relations in brand brand brand New York.
(CNN) — back March, Amnesty Global began reporting that the military that is egyptian exposed 17 females protesters at a Tahrir Square demonstration to «virginity tests.» The women told Amnesty which they was in fact handcuffed and beaten, stripped searched and photographed by male soldiers, then restrained by feminine soldiers while a person in a white layer performed a virginity check.
The army denied the accusations, however in recent times, a senior general has verified to CNN that certainly, the virginity tests happened. The overall justified the abuse by saying these ladies «were nothing like your mine or daughter. We were holding girls that has camped call at tents with male protesters.»
The overall went on to insist that the tests had been necessary because «we did not wish (the ladies) to express we’d sexually assaulted or raped them, therefore we wanted to show these weren’t virgins in the 1st place.»
What exactly are virginity tests? These are typically a controversial but practice that is relatively common Egypt — so much so that hymenoplasty (hymen renovation) can be looked for by Egyptian brides to safeguard their reputation to their wedding evening. But their usage as an intimidation factor by safety forces is apparently a brand new twist.