Tahrir Square in Cairo has become a hotbed for organized sexual assaults on Egyptian women. The violent, sustained sexual assault on CBS reporter Lara Logan was not an anomaly. In fact, since then, the attackers appear much more coordinated and many Egyptians believe it’s coming directly from Mohamed Morsi’s regime. At the very least, the attacks have noticeably increased and continue to rise under Morsi.
Check out this video from Mosireen and note the overhead shots of how hundreds of men literally isolate and then surround individual women (h/t GWP):
The assaults have been so bad that even NBC news is reporting on them:
In the post-Mubarak era, activists and protesters have reported many particularly violent assaults on women. Some experts allege the government and security officials are failing to take the problem seriously. More than 700 claims of harassment were filed across Egypt over the four-day Id al-Adha holiday in late October.
“It is not a country of law, not a state of law anymore. It has given men a chance to harass women without being accused,” said Afaf Marie, director of the Egyptian Association for Community Participation and Enhancement, an NGO.
Some activists fear that women’s rights will suffer under the rule of President Mohammed Morsi, who is an Islamist.
Here is video from last month, in which a female French journalist was assaulted in Tahrir Square:
War on women, indeed.