By Cam McGrath
"CAIRO, Mar 24, 2011 (IPS) - Fresh-faced Salwa El-Hosseiny had joined protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square when a plainclothes officer grabbed her and dragged her to army officers stationed in a nearby museum.
The veiled 20-year-old claims she was beaten, electrocuted and verbally abused, then sent with nearly twenty other female detainees to a military prison on the outskirts of Cairo. It was there that the army, which has ruled Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11, allegedly unleashed its latest weapon to curb dissent -- sexual humiliation.
"I was taken to a military prison along with other girls and we were placed in a room with two doors and a window," El-Hosseiny recounted during a press conference last week. "We begged the female guard to close the doors but she refused. We were ordered to remove all our clothes and were searched while cameras filmed us is order to fabricate evidence of prostitution."
El-Hosseiny, and other women detained at the prison, testified that a man claiming to be a doctor performed "virginity checks" on the unmarried girls in the group, threatening that those who failed the test would be charged with prostitution.
"The (female) prison guard stripped us and was beating us with hoses," said one detainee, who identified herself as an unmarried 29-year-old social worker. "The guard said 'girls will be examined, women won't.' I was examined for my virginity by a man wearing a white coat and a female prison guard."....."
"CAIRO, Mar 24, 2011 (IPS) - Fresh-faced Salwa El-Hosseiny had joined protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square when a plainclothes officer grabbed her and dragged her to army officers stationed in a nearby museum.
The veiled 20-year-old claims she was beaten, electrocuted and verbally abused, then sent with nearly twenty other female detainees to a military prison on the outskirts of Cairo. It was there that the army, which has ruled Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11, allegedly unleashed its latest weapon to curb dissent -- sexual humiliation.
"I was taken to a military prison along with other girls and we were placed in a room with two doors and a window," El-Hosseiny recounted during a press conference last week. "We begged the female guard to close the doors but she refused. We were ordered to remove all our clothes and were searched while cameras filmed us is order to fabricate evidence of prostitution."
El-Hosseiny, and other women detained at the prison, testified that a man claiming to be a doctor performed "virginity checks" on the unmarried girls in the group, threatening that those who failed the test would be charged with prostitution.
"The (female) prison guard stripped us and was beating us with hoses," said one detainee, who identified herself as an unmarried 29-year-old social worker. "The guard said 'girls will be examined, women won't.' I was examined for my virginity by a man wearing a white coat and a female prison guard."....."
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