Nasser Nasser/Associated Press
A poster showing a woman attacked by officers was carried by one of several thousand marchers Tuesday in downtown Cairo.
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: December 20, 2011
CAIRO — Several thousand women demanding the end of military rule marched through downtown Cairo on Tuesday evening in an extraordinary expression of anger over images of soldiers beating, stripping and kicking female demonstrators in Tahrir Square.Related
The Lede Blog: Video of Egyptian Women's March in Cairo(December 20, 2011)
The Lede Blog: Protesters 'Deserve to Be Thrown Into Hitler's Ovens,' Egyptian Military Adviser Says(December 19, 2011)
The Lede Blog: Video Shows Egyptian Soldiers Beating and Shooting at Protesters(December 17, 2011)
Related in Opinion
Editorial: Egypt’s Military Masters (December 21, 2011)
Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A woman shouted slogans during the protest Tuesday in Cairo. Chants, some joined by men, included, “Freedom, freedom.”Readers’ Comments
Share your thoughts.
“Drag me, strip me, my brothers’ blood will cover me!” they chanted. “Where is the field marshal?” they demanded of the top military officer, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. “The girls of Egypt are here.”Historians called the event the biggest women’s demonstration in modern Egyptian history, the most significant since a 1919 march against British colonialism inaugurated women’s activism here, and a rarity in the Arab world. It also added a new and unexpected wave of protesters opposing the ruling military council’s efforts to retain power and its tactics for suppressing public discontent.
The protest’s scale stunned even feminists here. In Egypt’s stiffly patriarchal culture, previous attempts to organize women’s events in Tahrir Square during this year’s protests almost always fizzled or, in one case in March, ended in the physical harassment of a small group of women by a larger crowd of men.“It was amazing the number of women that came out from all over the place,” said Zeinab Abul-Magd, a historian who has studied women’s activism here. “I expected fewer than 300.”The march abruptly pushed women to the center of Egyptian political life after they had been left out almost completely. Although women stood at the forefront of the initial revolt that ousted President Hosni Mubarak 10 months ago, few had prominent roles in the various revolutionary coalitions formed in the uprising’s aftermath. Almost no women have won seats in the early rounds of parliamentary elections. And the continuing demonstrations against military rule have often degenerated into battles in which young men and the security police hurl rocks at each other.On the fifth day of clashes that have killed at least 14 people, many women in the march said they hoped their demonstration would undercut the military council’s efforts to portray demonstrators as little more than hooligans, vandals and arsonists. “This will show those who stay home that we are not thugs,” said Fadwa Khaled, 25, a computer engineer.The women’s demand for a voice in political life appeared to run counter to the recent election victories of conservative Islamists. But the march was hardly dominated by secular liberals. It contained a broad spectrum of Egyptian women, including homemakers demonstrating for the first time and young mothers carrying babies, with a majority in traditional Muslim head scarves and a few in face-covering veils. And their chants mixed calls for women’s empowerment with others demanding more “gallantry” from Egyptian men.Egypt’s military rulers came under fire from international human rights groups soon after they took power in February for performing invasive, pseudo-medical “virginity tests” on several women detained after a protest in March. But in Egypt’s conservative culture, few of the women subjected to that humiliation have come forward to criticize the generals publicly.The spark for the march on Tuesday came over the weekend, when hundreds of military police officers in riot gear repeatedly stormed Tahrir Square, indiscriminately beating anyone they could catch. Videos showed more than one instance in which officers grabbed and stripped female demonstrators, tearing off their Muslim head scarves. And in the most infamous case caught on video, a half-dozen soldiers beat a supine woman with batons and ripped off her abaya to reveal a blue bra. Then one of them kicked her in the chest.Recalling that event at a news conference Tuesday, the woman’s friend Hassan Shahin said he had told the soldiers: “I’m a journalist, and this is a girl. Wait, I’ll take her away from here.” But, he said, “nobody listened, and one of them jumped on me, and they started beating me with batons.”No doubt fearful of the stigma that would come with her public humiliation, the victim has declined to step forward publicly, so some activists now refer to her only as “blue bra girl.” The photos of her beating and disrobing, however, have quickly circulated on the Internet and have been broadcast by television stations around the world.In Washington on Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the recent events in Egypt “shocking.”“Women are being beaten and humiliated in the same streets where they risked their lives for the revolution only a few short months ago,” Mrs. Clinton said.“Women are being attacked, stripped and beaten in the streets,” she added, arguing that what she called the systematic degradation of Egyptian women “disgraces the state and its uniform.” As recently as Tuesday morning, however, many activists here said that because relatively few Egyptians have access to the Internet, read independent newspapers or watch independent satellite television news, the blue bra video was far more widely familiar in the United States than in Egypt.“Four blocks from here, no one knows about this,” said Aalam Wassef, a blogger and an activist, at a meeting Tuesday morning in which activists announced a plan to set up screens in cities and towns around the country where people could see that video and others that contradict the generals’ version of events. (Other scenes include security forces hurling rocks and gasoline bombs, military police officers firing rifles and handguns and protesters bloodied by bullets.)Some men who had seen the images questioned why the woman had been in the square, suggesting that her husband or father should have kept her at home. Other men have argued that she must have wanted the exposure because she wore fancy lingerie, or they have said she should have worn more clothes under her abaya.But the woman’s ordeal began to receive new attention on Monday when Gen. Adel Emara, a member of the ruling military council, acknowledged what had happened during a news conference on state television. General Emara argued that the scene had been taken out of context and that the broader circumstances would explain what happened.At the same news conference, a veteran female journalist who reports on the military stood up to ask the general for an apology to Egyptian women. “Or the next revolution will be a women’s revolution for real,” the journalist warned. The general tried to interrupt her — he said the military had learned of a new plan to attack the Parliament — and then he brushed off her request.Many Egyptian women said later that they were outraged by his response.When core activists called for a march Tuesday evening to protest the military’s treatment of women — organizers on Twitter used the hash tag “#BlueBra” — few could have expected the magnitude of the response.The crowd seemed to grow at each step as the women marched, calling up to the apartment buildings lining the streets to urge others to join them. “Come down, come down,” they shouted in an echo of the protests that led to Mr. Mubarak’s ouster in February.“If you don’t leave your house today to confront the militias of Tantawi, you will leave your house tomorrow so they can rape your daughter,” one sign declared.“I am here because of our girls who were stripped in the street,” said Sohir Mahmoud, 50, a homemaker who said she was demonstrating for the first time.“Men are not going to cover your flesh, so we will,” she told a younger woman. “We have to come down and call for our rights. Nobody is going to call for our rights for us.”Along the sidewalks beside the march, some men came out to gawk and stare. Others chanted along with the women, “Freedom, freedom.”“I came so that girls are not stripped in the streets again,” said Afa Helal, 67, who was also demonstrating for the first time, “and because my daughters are always going to Tahrir. The army is supposed to protect the girls, not strip them!”
Mayy el-Sheik contributed reporting.
- EgyptianForFreedom
- LA
Shame! Shame on the Army..corrupt ..corrupt and useless!
- John
- Atlanta, GA
The Military Junta in Egypt is getting its orders from outside of the country. The Junta called their own Coup d’état a Revolution, and thought they can get away with this fake appellation. The Achilles-heel of these puppets is the building of the Egypt’s Ministry of Interior, where all the foreign orders are received. Take it and you liberate your country.
- tewfic el-sawy
- new york city
The armchair pundits who express their misguided (and largely clueless) statements that Egypt is not ready for democracy astound me...but then I remember that they're clueless for a reason. They're unable to follow the news from Egypt, and rely either on the sanitized version of what passes for news in the US media or succumb to their own bias and bigotry...or both. To wit: a NYT 'trusted commentator' expressed his view that it would've been better if Mubarak had stayed in power...and questioned if Egypt was ready for democracy. Perhaps he ought to watch the interview today given by Ghada Kamal (the young woman who was beaten and humiliated by the military) expressing her resolve to have democracy in Egypt and bring the military to justice for what they've done to her -and to others- in detention...and for having hijacked the revolution. Look it up on YouTube.
I can assure you, sir...she, as well as millions of Egyptians are ready for democracy. What they hope for is the support of fair-minded people...not bias, not bigotry, not off the cuff, clueless, demeaning and patronizing statements.
- Wizarat
- Moorestown, NJ
When do we get any action from UN or NATO re saving the unarmed protestors,
How about a no fly zone -
no that is only for the other goons, these are our goons.
- anton v. lersundi
- Navarre
The Egyptian military follow the same techniques that their colleagues in Chile.
Murdering civilians, beating and undresing women, -in an Arab country- are their glorious deeds. And the US give 3b US$ every year to these filthy cowards.
- TC
- DC
Blaming the protestors for the violence is about as ridiculous as Sadaam blaming the U.S. for his downfall.
- abby
- texas
say hello to the new "boss" -- same as the "old" boss --- actually, the boss is the same -- the military....
- Romy
- NYC
After watching the video of the young woman who was beaten, kicked, and dragged in the street by at least a half-dozen military with batons, the claim that protesters are to blame is ludicrous. Clearly, the military are intent on crushing any civilian action and subjecting unarmed individuals to their extremely violent ends.
- hen3ry
- New York
This is an alarming development given the fact that the Egyptians wanted the freedom to choose their head of state. Now it seems as if the military will back their own candidate and enforce it through some of the same unsavory tactics used by other juntas.
- Rob DL
- Connecticut
- Trusted
So far, based on what we see, it would have been better if Mubarak stayed in power.
Perhaps Hosni Mubarak resisted calls by the Obama Administration and the West for "democratic reform" because he knew his country simply wasn't ready for it.- Shoshon
- Portland, Oregon
No way- this is part of a long and difficult process called "Democracy". Egyptians are doing an incredible job at pushing through a historic juncture, and deserve our continued support. Here in America we fought the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the 700,000 died in the Civil War before we were truly unified. Egypt has come a long way in 11 months.
Egypt is ready for democracy, as the recent parliamentary elections attest. The vast majority of people voted, and peacefully. Its just that the military is attempting to cling to power. But with pressure from the street, the Muslim brotherhood, and the US, they WILL give up power to civilians.- tewfic el-sawy
- new york city
"...his country simply wasn't ready for it."
I love it when armchair pundits pontificate about Egypt's political situation ... it's always so entertaining...so let me bite. Please expand on your statement that it would be better if Mubarak wasn't kicked out. Better for whom? And when you've tackled this, please explain when is a country "ready" for democratic reforms. I thought freedom is a human right.
thanks a bunch.- Chris
- Vermont
Better for whom?
- Mao
- Sinai, Egypt
Why is this surprise? The military have ruled Egypt since Nasser. They will not give up the reins of power voluntarily. Their actions speak louder than their words.
- Steve Thompson
- Maine
According to a study by a well-respected think tank, Egypt has a history of being among the least free nations in the world. Here is an examination of how both civil and political freedom in Egypt is crushed, how the level of freedom in the country compares to other nations in the region and what changes need to be implemented to improve the situation for Egyptians:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2011/11/freedom-in-egypt-what-are-p...
- Madam Defarge
- New York
Mayor Bloomberg is considering outsourcing NYPD's crowd control activities to the a private security team associated with the Egyptian army. A spokesman from the Mayor's office stated that they do not expect there to be any increase in civil rights violations with this Wall Street changing of the guard. Most observer's agree that at increase in police violence is unlikely.
- Buckeye
- Ohio
Dozens of protesting Egyptian patriots have been killed by thugs in uniform using bullets, beatings or toxic tear gas (made in the USA); hundreds have been severely wounded; women, in particular, have been brutally abused by police thugs, and the military rulers deny responsibility and arrogantly blame the victims of their bloody repression. These are the birth pangs of a new Egypt, one which will be governed by the spirit of Isis and Osiris and no longer by descendants of the killer god, Seth.
- George Ennis
- Toronto, Canada
- Trusted
Hopefully the Egyptian generals will be awarded medals for bravery. It takes a special person to attack unarmed women and children but the Egyptian generals rose to the challenge.- Yabaulee
- NYC
Yes sir...it's a junta.
- Anniken Davenport
- Harrisburg
This is beginning to look a lot like a military coup. Where is Turkey?http://valhallapress.blogspot.com
CAIRO — Several thousand women demanding the end of military rule marched through downtown Cairo on Tuesday evening in an extraordinary expression of anger over images of soldiers beating, stripping and kicking female demonstrators in Tahrir Square.
Related
The Lede Blog: Video of Egyptian Women's March in Cairo(December 20, 2011)
The Lede Blog: Protesters 'Deserve to Be Thrown Into Hitler's Ovens,' Egyptian Military Adviser Says(December 19, 2011)
The Lede Blog: Video Shows Egyptian Soldiers Beating and Shooting at Protesters(December 17, 2011)
Related in Opinion
Editorial: Egypt’s Military Masters (December 21, 2011)
Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A woman shouted slogans during the protest Tuesday in Cairo. Chants, some joined by men, included, “Freedom, freedom.”
Readers’ Comments
Share your thoughts.
“Drag me, strip me, my brothers’ blood will cover me!” they chanted. “Where is the field marshal?” they demanded of the top military officer, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. “The girls of Egypt are here.”
Historians called the event the biggest women’s demonstration in modern Egyptian history, the most significant since a 1919 march against British colonialism inaugurated women’s activism here, and a rarity in the Arab world. It also added a new and unexpected wave of protesters opposing the ruling military council’s efforts to retain power and its tactics for suppressing public discontent.
The protest’s scale stunned even feminists here. In Egypt’s stiffly patriarchal culture, previous attempts to organize women’s events in Tahrir Square during this year’s protests almost always fizzled or, in one case in March, ended in the physical harassment of a small group of women by a larger crowd of men.
“It was amazing the number of women that came out from all over the place,” said Zeinab Abul-Magd, a historian who has studied women’s activism here. “I expected fewer than 300.”
The march abruptly pushed women to the center of Egyptian political life after they had been left out almost completely. Although women stood at the forefront of the initial revolt that ousted President Hosni Mubarak 10 months ago, few had prominent roles in the various revolutionary coalitions formed in the uprising’s aftermath. Almost no women have won seats in the early rounds of parliamentary elections. And the continuing demonstrations against military rule have often degenerated into battles in which young men and the security police hurl rocks at each other.
On the fifth day of clashes that have killed at least 14 people, many women in the march said they hoped their demonstration would undercut the military council’s efforts to portray demonstrators as little more than hooligans, vandals and arsonists. “This will show those who stay home that we are not thugs,” said Fadwa Khaled, 25, a computer engineer.
The women’s demand for a voice in political life appeared to run counter to the recent election victories of conservative Islamists. But the march was hardly dominated by secular liberals. It contained a broad spectrum of Egyptian women, including homemakers demonstrating for the first time and young mothers carrying babies, with a majority in traditional Muslim head scarves and a few in face-covering veils. And their chants mixed calls for women’s empowerment with others demanding more “gallantry” from Egyptian men.
Egypt’s military rulers came under fire from international human rights groups soon after they took power in February for performing invasive, pseudo-medical “virginity tests” on several women detained after a protest in March. But in Egypt’s conservative culture, few of the women subjected to that humiliation have come forward to criticize the generals publicly.
The spark for the march on Tuesday came over the weekend, when hundreds of military police officers in riot gear repeatedly stormed Tahrir Square, indiscriminately beating anyone they could catch. Videos showed more than one instance in which officers grabbed and stripped female demonstrators, tearing off their Muslim head scarves. And in the most infamous case caught on video, a half-dozen soldiers beat a supine woman with batons and ripped off her abaya to reveal a blue bra. Then one of them kicked her in the chest.
Recalling that event at a news conference Tuesday, the woman’s friend Hassan Shahin said he had told the soldiers: “I’m a journalist, and this is a girl. Wait, I’ll take her away from here.” But, he said, “nobody listened, and one of them jumped on me, and they started beating me with batons.”
No doubt fearful of the stigma that would come with her public humiliation, the victim has declined to step forward publicly, so some activists now refer to her only as “blue bra girl.” The photos of her beating and disrobing, however, have quickly circulated on the Internet and have been broadcast by television stations around the world.
In Washington on Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the recent events in Egypt “shocking.”
“Women are being beaten and humiliated in the same streets where they risked their lives for the revolution only a few short months ago,” Mrs. Clinton said.
“Women are being attacked, stripped and beaten in the streets,” she added, arguing that what she called the systematic degradation of Egyptian women “disgraces the state and its uniform.”
As recently as Tuesday morning, however, many activists here said that because relatively few Egyptians have access to the Internet, read independent newspapers or watch independent satellite television news, the blue bra video was far more widely familiar in the United States than in Egypt.
“Four blocks from here, no one knows about this,” said Aalam Wassef, a blogger and an activist, at a meeting Tuesday morning in which activists announced a plan to set up screens in cities and towns around the country where people could see that video and others that contradict the generals’ version of events. (Other scenes include security forces hurling rocks and gasoline bombs, military police officers firing rifles and handguns and protesters bloodied by bullets.)
Some men who had seen the images questioned why the woman had been in the square, suggesting that her husband or father should have kept her at home. Other men have argued that she must have wanted the exposure because she wore fancy lingerie, or they have said she should have worn more clothes under her abaya.
But the woman’s ordeal began to receive new attention on Monday when Gen. Adel Emara, a member of the ruling military council, acknowledged what had happened during a news conference on state television. General Emara argued that the scene had been taken out of context and that the broader circumstances would explain what happened.
At the same news conference, a veteran female journalist who reports on the military stood up to ask the general for an apology to Egyptian women. “Or the next revolution will be a women’s revolution for real,” the journalist warned. The general tried to interrupt her — he said the military had learned of a new plan to attack the Parliament — and then he brushed off her request.
Many Egyptian women said later that they were outraged by his response.
When core activists called for a march Tuesday evening to protest the military’s treatment of women — organizers on Twitter used the hash tag “#BlueBra” — few could have expected the magnitude of the response.
The crowd seemed to grow at each step as the women marched, calling up to the apartment buildings lining the streets to urge others to join them. “Come down, come down,” they shouted in an echo of the protests that led to Mr. Mubarak’s ouster in February.
“If you don’t leave your house today to confront the militias of Tantawi, you will leave your house tomorrow so they can rape your daughter,” one sign declared.
“I am here because of our girls who were stripped in the street,” said Sohir Mahmoud, 50, a homemaker who said she was demonstrating for the first time.
“Men are not going to cover your flesh, so we will,” she told a younger woman. “We have to come down and call for our rights. Nobody is going to call for our rights for us.”
Along the sidewalks beside the march, some men came out to gawk and stare. Others chanted along with the women, “Freedom, freedom.”
“I came so that girls are not stripped in the streets again,” said Afa Helal, 67, who was also demonstrating for the first time, “and because my daughters are always going to Tahrir. The army is supposed to protect the girls, not strip them!”
Mayy el-Sheik contributed reporting.
- EgyptianForFreedom
- LA
Shame! Shame on the Army..corrupt ..corrupt and useless!- John
- Atlanta, GA
The Military Junta in Egypt is getting its orders from outside of the country. The Junta called their own Coup d’état a Revolution, and thought they can get away with this fake appellation. The Achilles-heel of these puppets is the building of the Egypt’s Ministry of Interior, where all the foreign orders are received. Take it and you liberate your country.- tewfic el-sawy
- new york city
The armchair pundits who express their misguided (and largely clueless) statements that Egypt is not ready for democracy astound me...but then I remember that they're clueless for a reason. They're unable to follow the news from Egypt, and rely either on the sanitized version of what passes for news in the US media or succumb to their own bias and bigotry...or both. To wit: a NYT 'trusted commentator' expressed his view that it would've been better if Mubarak had stayed in power...and questioned if Egypt was ready for democracy. Perhaps he ought to watch the interview today given by Ghada Kamal (the young woman who was beaten and humiliated by the military) expressing her resolve to have democracy in Egypt and bring the military to justice for what they've done to her -and to others- in detention...and for having hijacked the revolution. Look it up on YouTube.
I can assure you, sir...she, as well as millions of Egyptians are ready for democracy. What they hope for is the support of fair-minded people...not bias, not bigotry, not off the cuff, clueless, demeaning and patronizing statements.- Wizarat
- Moorestown, NJ
When do we get any action from UN or NATO re saving the unarmed protestors,
How about a no fly zone -
no that is only for the other goons, these are our goons.- anton v. lersundi
- Navarre
The Egyptian military follow the same techniques that their colleagues in Chile.
Murdering civilians, beating and undresing women, -in an Arab country- are their glorious deeds. And the US give 3b US$ every year to these filthy cowards.- TC
- DC
Blaming the protestors for the violence is about as ridiculous as Sadaam blaming the U.S. for his downfall.- abby
- texas
say hello to the new "boss" -- same as the "old" boss --- actually, the boss is the same -- the military....- Romy
- NYC
After watching the video of the young woman who was beaten, kicked, and dragged in the street by at least a half-dozen military with batons, the claim that protesters are to blame is ludicrous. Clearly, the military are intent on crushing any civilian action and subjecting unarmed individuals to their extremely violent ends.- hen3ry
- New York
This is an alarming development given the fact that the Egyptians wanted the freedom to choose their head of state. Now it seems as if the military will back their own candidate and enforce it through some of the same unsavory tactics used by other juntas.- Rob DL
- Connecticut
- Trusted
So far, based on what we see, it would have been better if Mubarak stayed in power.
Perhaps Hosni Mubarak resisted calls by the Obama Administration and the West for "democratic reform" because he knew his country simply wasn't ready for it.- Shoshon
- Portland, Oregon
No way- this is part of a long and difficult process called "Democracy". Egyptians are doing an incredible job at pushing through a historic juncture, and deserve our continued support. Here in America we fought the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the 700,000 died in the Civil War before we were truly unified. Egypt has come a long way in 11 months.
Egypt is ready for democracy, as the recent parliamentary elections attest. The vast majority of people voted, and peacefully. Its just that the military is attempting to cling to power. But with pressure from the street, the Muslim brotherhood, and the US, they WILL give up power to civilians.- tewfic el-sawy
- new york city
"...his country simply wasn't ready for it."
I love it when armchair pundits pontificate about Egypt's political situation ... it's always so entertaining...so let me bite. Please expand on your statement that it would be better if Mubarak wasn't kicked out. Better for whom? And when you've tackled this, please explain when is a country "ready" for democratic reforms. I thought freedom is a human right.
thanks a bunch.- Chris
- Vermont
Better for whom?
- Mao
- Sinai, Egypt
Why is this surprise? The military have ruled Egypt since Nasser. They will not give up the reins of power voluntarily. Their actions speak louder than their words.- Steve Thompson
- Maine
According to a study by a well-respected think tank, Egypt has a history of being among the least free nations in the world. Here is an examination of how both civil and political freedom in Egypt is crushed, how the level of freedom in the country compares to other nations in the region and what changes need to be implemented to improve the situation for Egyptians:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2011/11/freedom-in-egypt-what-are-p...- Madam Defarge
- New York
Mayor Bloomberg is considering outsourcing NYPD's crowd control activities to the a private security team associated with the Egyptian army. A spokesman from the Mayor's office stated that they do not expect there to be any increase in civil rights violations with this Wall Street changing of the guard. Most observer's agree that at increase in police violence is unlikely.- Buckeye
- Ohio
Dozens of protesting Egyptian patriots have been killed by thugs in uniform using bullets, beatings or toxic tear gas (made in the USA); hundreds have been severely wounded; women, in particular, have been brutally abused by police thugs, and the military rulers deny responsibility and arrogantly blame the victims of their bloody repression. These are the birth pangs of a new Egypt, one which will be governed by the spirit of Isis and Osiris and no longer by descendants of the killer god, Seth.- George Ennis
- Toronto, Canada
- Trusted
Hopefully the Egyptian generals will be awarded medals for bravery. It takes a special person to attack unarmed women and children but the Egyptian generals rose to the challenge.- Yabaulee
- NYC
Yes sir...it's a junta.
- Anniken Davenport
- Harrisburg
This is beginning to look a lot like a military coup. Where is Turkey?http://valhallapress.blogspot.com
20 Comments