EGYPT

Egyptian officials and political leaders across the spectrum should condemn and take immediate steps to address the horrific levels of sexual violence against women in Tahrir Square. Egyptian anti-sexual harassment groups confirmed that mobs sexually assaulted and in some cases raped at least 91 women in Tahrir Square, over four days of protests beginning on June 30, 2013, amid a climate of impunity.

The Egyptian group Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment/Assault, which runs a hotline for victims of sexual assault and seeks to intervene to stop attacks, has received scores of reports of attacks on women in Tahrir Square over the past three days. The group confirmed 46 attacks on June 30, 17 on July 1, and 23 on July 2. The group’s volunteers intervened to protect and evacuate women in 31 cases of sexual assault. Four of the women needed medical assistance, including two who were evacuated by ambulance. The women’s rights group Nazra for Feminist Studies had confirmed another five attacks on June 28.

One woman required surgery after being raped with a “sharp object,” volunteers with the group said. In other cases, women were beaten with metal chains, sticks, and chairs, and attacked with knives. In some cases they were assaulted for as long as 45 minutes before they were able to escape.

The Egyptian government’s response has typically been to downplay the extent of the problem or to seek to address it through legislative reform alone. What is needed are concerted efforts to improve law enforcement’s practice in protecting victims and effectively investigating and prosecuting the attackers, as well as a comprehensive national strategy on the part of the government.

Since November 2011, police have stayed away from Tahrir Square during bigger protests, to avoid clashes with protesters. This has left women protesters unprotected, and the men involved in the gang attacks and rapes secure in the knowledge that they will not be arrested or identified by police.

Women’s rights groups reported at least 19 cases of mob sexual assaults in Tahrir square in January, including six women who required urgent medical assistance, as well as 10 in November 2012, and 7 in June 2012. In January, one of the cases reported to the anti-sexual harassment group was a woman who was raped with a bladed weapon that cut her genitals. 

There is little awareness of or respect for the privacy of victims or how to appropriately deal with their trauma on the part of state medical officials, the media, and political parties like the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Freedom and Justice Party. On July 1, the party’s website, and the July 2 print version of the party’s paper, violated the privacy of one victim, identifying her by name and nationality. The report cited a “Ministry of Health representative” as the source of this information.

Human Rights Watch is aware of cases in which police officers and hospital officials have shared information with the media about the identity of victims without their consent, a violation of their right to privacy and in some cases a security risk for the victims.

Based on survivor and witness accounts, it appears that the attacks have tended to follow similar patterns. Typically a handful of young men at demonstrations single out a woman and encircle her, separating her from her friends. During the attacks – which have lasted from a few minutes to more than an hour – the number of attackers increases and they grope the woman’s body and try to remove her clothing. The attackers often drag the woman to a different location while continuing to attack her.

In some cases, the attackers have assaulted other women and activists with sticks and knives for trying to rescue the victims. Survivors and witnesses told Human Rights Watch that some of the men claiming to help the women during the attacks were in fact taking part, further disorienting victims, who could not assess who was in fact assisting them.

Photo: Protesters take part in a protest demanding that Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy resign at Tahrir Square in Cairo on July 1, 2013. © 2013 Reuters