Nayra El Sheikh was no stranger to Tahrir. The 30-year-old activist had been a dweller of the square since the outbreak of the revolution on January 25, and had gotten used to the tear gas and the rubber bullets.

However, on November 21, following clashes that broke out between Central Security Forces (CSF) and protestors in Tahrir Square, El Sheikh was exposed to a new, unfamiliar threat.

While delivering medical supplies to a field hospital on Mohamed Mahmoud Street, El Sheikh got caught in a predominantly male crowd who started touching her and groping different parts of her body.

“It was sort of systematic,” recounts El Sheikh. “I saw other girls being swarmed by crowds.”

But El Sheikh is not like other girls, who often do not confront their harassers. “I fought back. I would catch the hand, trace it back to the person and hit him.”

After being rescued from the crowd by a young man, El Sheikh finished delivering the medical supplies.

Since the incident, she has gone back to Tahrir Square without even thinking twice.

“People need to understand that being in a revolution is a hazardous business and it’s not for everyone,” she says.

“But I cannot give up on my cause.”

Ever since the January 25 Revolution, women have literally fought their way into the public sphere and stood on the front lines, no longer hiding behind men but rather side by side with them.

In return, they have been exposed to all kinds of violence, whether it be sexual assault or physical beatings.

In spite of the scars, both physical and emotional, women keep going back to the battle zone, proving that they are in fact much stronger than society would like to believe.

REVOLUTIONARY CATCALLS
During the 18 days of the protests, one of Tahrir Square’s main features that was constantly noted was the fact that it was a harassment-free zone.

While sexual harassment had become a regular occurrence in the life of the average Egyptian woman, those who went to the square celebrated that they could walk through crowds of men and not hear a single catcall.

However, the Tahrir utopia soon faded away, and sexual harassment made a strong comeback as soon as former President Hosni Mubarak was gone.

With the November clashes in particular, several incidents similar to El Sheikh’s occurred where a lone woman would be surrounded by a large crowd of men who would take turns assaulting her.

“The latest events in Tahrir witnessed high and intense cases of sexual harassment,” says Engy Ghozlan, cofounder of Harassmap, an online interactive service that maps incidents of sexual harassment reported via SMS messages, emails and social networking websites, such as twitter and Facebook.

Noting that most of the recent reports of harassment all refer to Tahrir incidents, Ghozlan says, “The trend and the reports [seem to indicate the harassment] was intended or planned, but I don’t have any evidence or proof.”

Normally Harassmap receives  five to 10 reports on average per five-day period; November 25–30 saw 20 reports.

Among the Harassmap reports filed in late November: A young girl who was caught in the middle of a group of men who assaulted her with their hands.

Another girl, injured on Mohamed Mahmoud Street while fleeing from Central Security Forces, was accosted by a man who approached her from behind as if to help.

Instead, he grabbed her and attempted to put his fingers down her trousers before he was chased away by the crowd around them.

A third account was from a woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted by two men who barged into her tent in the square.

Ghozlan believes that these incidents are attempts to keep women out of  Tahrir Square.

“Usually, sexual harassment is used as a tool against women to be pushed outside of public spaces,” says Ghozlan.

“Yet I think sexual harassment is a social epidemic that, unless we all speak up against it, will keep happening regardless of events or incidents in Egypt.”

HARASSMENT FORCES
Sexual assault was not only committed by groups of civilian men. Some of the incidents allegedly involved men in uniform, namely CSF.

Several reports and incidents recounted the use of sexual assault against women who were detained by CSF, particularly during the November clashes.

Presidential candidate Bothaina Kamel alleged she was sexually assaulted while she was in Tahrir Square helping out at a field hospital on November 21.

Speaking to international media, Kamel recalled being captured and dragged to the Ministry of Interior.

She claimed that even though the high-ranking officers recognized her as a public figure and ordered that she not be touched, lower-ranking CSF soldiers allegedly tried to grope every part of her body while they were transporting her to the ministry.

Salma El Nakkash, a project coordinator at the women’s rights research organization Nazra, received reports of similar incidents through the organization’s hotline for reporting violations of women’s rights.

“All the girls that called in had similar reports. [CSF personnel] had harassed them in every way possible,” says El Nakkash.

“At the end of the day, this is the price we pay for getting involved in the public sphere because we live in a society where they think girls should stay out of the public sphere.”

Although working for a feminist organization, El Nakkash notes that sexual assault at the hands of authorities is not restricted to women but often happens to men as well.

“If we did a focus group for guys who were abducted from Mohamed Mahmoud Street, I’m sure we’d find more horrible stories,” she says. “For guys, it’s much more horrible and for them, it’s harder to admit that they got sexually harassed.”

Which is why El Nakkash commends Maged Butter, an activist who was arrested on Mohamed Mahmoud Street on November 24.

The activist alleged in his video testimony posted on the video sharing website, YouTube that not only did CSF personnel severely beat him but  also molested him by placing their fingers inside his pants.

“I think Maged was brave to admit it,” says El Nakkash. “I’m sure that the issue goes much deeper with men, but they would rather admit to physical violence than sexual violence.”

TESTING FOR VIRGINITY
Perhaps the most outright violation of women’s rights reported so far is the alleged ‘virginity tests,’ conducted by army soldiers on March 9, after the army raided Tahrir Square in order to clear it out.

According to reports from victims, the army detained 17 women from Tahrir Square and allegedly beat and used electric shocks on them outside of the Egyptian Museum.

Seven of these women were threatened with prostitution charges, after which they were allegedly stripped naked and forced to undergo a virginity test by a man claiming to be a doctor at a military prison in Heikstep.

The women were brought before a military court on March 11, and then released two days later.

On March 28, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) issued in statement Number 29 on their official Facebook page that they would “look into the truth of what was said recently regarding the torture of women arrested during the latest sit-in in Tahrir by military officers.”

The issue of virginity is a taboo that women in Egypt usually shy away from discussing, so it is not very surprising that only one woman from the detainees has spoken out on the incident.

Samira Ibrahim, who is 25 years old, filed an official complaint with the military prosecution in order to seek punishment for her abuser.

Additionally, the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and other rights NGOs filed a lawsuit on behalf of Ibrahim with the court of Administrative Justice.

In the beginning, members of the SCAF repeatedly denied that the virginity tests ever took place as the case continues to get postponed after each hearing.

However, on December 20, Major General Adel El-Mursi, head of the military judiciary, announced that some army personnel are currently facing military prosecution for their involvement with the virginity tests incident.

According to the Nazra report “A Continuation of Violations: Military Police towards Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRD),” released in December, the beatings, assaults and harassment “implicates women’s very sexual identity, reducing women to sex objects, thus impacting on their value as human beings.”

Addressing the allegations from March 9, the report added, “Virginity tests are, by their nature, invasive and violent, and the impact on women’s dignity and bodily integrity is severe.”

PUBLIC BEATINGS
Until recently, alleged violence against women by the military personnel had been committed behind the closed doors of a prison cell or in the shadows of a museum.

However, December’s military crackdown on protestors outside of the Parliament produced shocking images and videos of women being violently grabbed, dragged by the hair or beaten severely by people in military uniforms.

One now-famous video widely distributed across traditional and social media shows a young girl whose abaya and shirt were ripped open while being dragged by a group of four men in military uniforms, who continued to beat her with batons and stomp on her bare stomach.

Amany Mahmoud, coordinator of the women’s program at the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, believes that the excessive violence used against women in recent events reflects the military’s intention of demeaning Egyptian society.

“In Egypt, women represent dignity and honor, so when they humiliate women publicly then they are attacking society’s sense of dignity,” says Mahmoud.

“They are using women as a way to humiliate society as a whole.”

However, Mahmoud says that violence against women is not unusual in any way, but that authorities have been using it at protests since 2005.

On May 25, 2005, security forces clamped down on a protest held against the Article 76 amendment referendum, which was related to the eligibility of presidential candidates, and proceeded to sexually assault and beat the female protestors.

Additionally, a group of 30 women were allegedly pulled out of the protest and taken into a parking garage, where they were sexually assaulted by a group of government-hired thugs.

“There is a methodology of violence against women in Egypt in order to deny women  their basic rights,” says Mahmoud.

Despite the physical and emotional pain that the violence carries, Mahmoud does not believe it will affect women’s participation in the public sphere.

“As we have seen, women keep going back and participating in protests,” she says. “It’s almost as if it motivates them to fight back.”

After the December clashes, it seems that more women are ready to take a stand.

On December 20, thousands of women from all walks of life marched through Downtown to protest the graphic images of women being beaten by military and security personnel. Immediately after the march ended, the SCAF issued a statement saying they regretted the recent violence.

It is a minor victory.

But with few, if any, women expected to win seats in the incoming Parliament, it seems the women’s battle to fully participate in society will continue to be waged in the streets. et