EGYPT: ***UPDATE***MASS SEXUAL ASSAULTS ON WOMEN IN DOWNTOWN CAIRO***UPDATE***

Alleged attacks set off dispute in Egypt
By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt — Alleged mob attacks on women during last week's Islamic holiday have set off a political dispute involving President Hosni Mubarak's regime.

Witnesses accuse police of doing nothing to protect the women as they walked on downtown Cairo streets, and democracy activists have cited the controversy as a sign that Egypt is mismanaged and corrupt.

The government has accused the bloggers who publicized the incidents of defaming the country, and some police officials have said there is no evidence any attacks occurred.

But a handful of Internet bloggers, who said they either witnessed the attacks or spoke with witnesses, reported that on the nights of Oct. 23 and 24 women were attacked by groups of men and boys who groped them and tore at their clothes. Some women wore head scarves or full Islamic veils and others were with their families, the bloggers said.

"Anything that moves and smells like a female was attacked," said Wael Abbas, a democracy activist and blogger who said he witnessed the alleged attacks and published photographs of them on his blog.

Crowds of people filled Cairo's streets on those nights to celebrate the beginning of Eid el-Fitr, the three-day holiday that marks the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

Interior Ministry officials, quoted on condition of anonymity in the Egyptian press, said they received no complaints of such attacks. "We should close the file on disparaging rumors," said one police official quoted in Al Ahram, Egypt's biggest government daily.

The government made no other official comment.

But an editorial in Rose el-Youssef, a pro-government daily, carried the headline: "To what extent are they just defaming Egyptians?" The author singled out Abbas for condemnation, accusing him of fabricating a "sexual revolution downtown."

Opposition newspapers and activists have seized on the controversy to broadly criticize Mubarak's government. A similar outcry occurred after a ferry sank in the Red Sea in February, killing more than 1,000 laborers.

"Nothing amazes me in Egypt lately ... But what happened during Eid took me back to sad surprises," Sahar el-Mougy, a female novelist and activist, wrote in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm.

While low-level harassment of women is common in Egyptian cities, reports of assaults are rare.

Police are usually on the streets in large numbers.

Some activists said the police seemed more concerned about protecting Mubarak and his allies than ordinary citizens, while others criticized Mubarak directly.

"They (the police) are a political force in the service of the regime and not of the citizens," said Aida Seif el-Dawla, an activist and the director of the Al-Nadim Center for the Management and Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence.

Some linked the recent reported attacks and assaults on women activists and journalists during a referendum vote last year.

"It was the security forces who introduced the culture of violating women when they tore the clothes of Kifaya (an opposition group) female activists, said Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

Security officials have said clashes linked to the 2005 referendum, held to determine whether more than one candidate would be allowed to run in presidential elections, were between Mubarak supporters and Kifaya members and that security officials were not involved. But Associated Press reporters saw plainclothes agents taking instructions from both uniformed and non-uniformed government security officers.


Pertinent Links:

1) Alleged attacks set off dispute in Egypt

2) Sexual Assaults on a Mass Scale (My Original Blog Post)

3) Mass sexual assault in downtown Cairo (Forsoothsayer Blog)