Violence Against Women
The State Council on Tuesday adjourned till Dec. 27 a case against the military institution to end the practice of virginity tests.
The case was filed by a women who was subjected to a virginity test in military prison last March.
The victim, Samira Ibrahim, was arrested by military police during a sit-in in Tahrir Square and was subject to a forced virginity test inside the military prison by unidentified military personnel.
"This case against performing virginity tests on female prisoners inside the military prison is one of three cases we filed to support Samira's case," Lawyer from Hisham Mubarak Law Center Ahmed Hossam told Daily News Egypt Tuesday.
The State Council will look into the second case in December, which contests the decision to refer Ibrahim to a military court. It includes an appeal against the one-year suspended sentence handed down to Ibrahim by the military court.
The third case is against the army officers who conducted the virginity test. It is being heard by the military court.
Ibrahim is the only one of 17 protesters who were forced to undergo virginity tests, to take the case to court, challenging the social stigma associated with such issues in the conservative Upper Egyptian society.
Ibrahim appeared on a YouTube video by the No to Military Trials for Civilians Campaign where she recounted her ordeal inside the military prison.
Human Rights Watch condemned earlier the military’s reluctance to investigate the sexual assault of female protesters and other documented torture cases of more than 170 protesters arrested during a crackdown on a Tahrir Square sit-in last March.
“Egypt’s military rulers are trying to cover up one of the most terrible abuses their forces committed this year,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “After the trauma of sexual assault, these women have been denied the protection of the law.”
Major General Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, head of Egypt’s military intelligence reportedly told Amnesty International in June that the military conducted the virginity tests in preemptive self-defense against potential rape allegations.
It was the first time that a member of the military council ruling Egypt since former president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in February has been named confirming that the military carried out these virginity tests.
CNN had previously quoted an anonymous senior military officer who confessed performing virginity checks on arrested female protesters.
"The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine," the general said. "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 the high ranking officer.
"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," the general said. "None of them were [virgins]," he added.
The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) promised in its 29th statement that allegations of torture cases will be investigated.
HRW said it was told by a SCAF member that the incidents are still under investigation.
“We cannot confirm or deny that this happened because it is currently under investigation,” HRW was told.
A SCAF member also told HRW that SCAF had “issued instructions that this should not take place again.”
Screen grab from YouTube video by the "No to Military Trials Campaign" shows Samira Ibrahim, who is suing the
military for subjecting her to a virginity test.