Violence Against Women
During the early days of the revolution against President Hosni Mubarak, a sense of shared purpose and community made Tahrir Square feel like the safest place in Cairo, for women and men. But that collapsed almost the moment Mr. Mubarak left office, on Feb. 11, 2011. Sexual assault and the harassment of women in public, an epidemic problem in Egypt for decades, became alarmingly common again.
The security forces have long used sexual assault as a weapon against political dissent. In a notorious episode in 2005, security officers watched pro-government thugs sexually assault four female demonstrators outside the journalists’ syndicate in Cairo. Prosecutors declined to bring charges, and state and private media outlets blamed the women for exposing themselves.
After Mr. Mubarak’s ouster, military forces trying to disperse demonstrators detained a group of women and subjected them to “virginity tests.” A military intelligence officer named Abdel Fattah el-Sisi publicly defended the practice, arguing that it was necessary to protect soldiers from rape allegations. He is now Egypt’s president.
Some women used the openness created by the revolt to demand their own rights. Defying the stigma that follows victims of sexual assault here, one of the women subjected to the “virginity tests,” Samira Ibrahim, won a landmark court ruling banning the practice.
In December 2011, security personnel were captured on video beating and stripping a woman protesting military rule. Her black abaya was pulled up over her face, so she became known as the “blue bra woman” and “the Lady of All Girls.” Days later, thousands of women outraged by the video marched through the streets of Cairo, demanding an end to violence against women by soldiers and the police.
After the military takeover on July 3, 2013, however, the new government barred such unauthorized demonstrations. A crackdown on dissent ended the freedoms of organization and expression that made the march possible. Calls to hold security forces accountable for abuses against women have largely gone silent.
Instead, courts have sentenced thousands of men and women to prison or death at politicized mass trials. One case alone included more than 100 women, including Hend Nafea. She and several others had been dragged, beaten and stripped by security forces at another demonstration against military rule in 2011.
Ms. Nafea, 26, was among the lucky. She was convicted in absentia and fled to Lebanon. In June, she will attend the premiere in New York of a film, “The Trials of Spring,” about her case and the broader role of women in the Arab Spring revolts.
The Trials of Spring is a six-part series about women who played important roles in their countries during the Arab Spring. The series is presented by The New York Times in conjunction with a feature-length documentary co-produced by ZAG Line Pictures LLC and Independent Television Service, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and in association with Fork Films, Artemis Rising Foundation and the Center for Independent Documentary. For more, visit thetrialsofspring.com.