Now that the revolutionary fervor of the Arab Spring has come down to a simmer most of the news is focusing on elections and the increasing possibility that Muslim Brotherhood candidates could take control of the country. Absent are the reports of human rights violations and one would be hard pressed to find the little bit of news that brings it to light. Those stories, when they do make it to the airwaves, are usually on Arabic only websites. Effectively this cuts off a good amount of the free world from following the stagnant (and most likely regressive) human rights policies in action in post revolutionary Egypt.
Last month on Egypts “90 Minutes” this clip was aired of a woman being confronted by a “police” officer. To date the man has yet to be identified. If he was/is a member of law enforcement than ID’ing him should not be hard. At a certain point the woman is asked by the officer to remove her undergarments. When she refuses the “officer” says he will be taking her away to the ministry of justice. This video has been brushed aside for two reasons. Firstly, since the man can not, and has not yet been identified, critics claim that he must not be a law enforcement officer of any kind. Secondly, towards the end someone appears in front of the camera making a funny face. The conclusion to date is that the video must be inauthentic. But from what we have learned about the human rights violations post-Mubarak this is still quite tame. It makes one wonder if it is really being brushed aside because what we in the west view as a violations of rights is not viewed the same due to the gender of the victim.
The encounter starts about 1:30 mark and continues until around the 4:00 mark. You be the judge.
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You can find the original print story on this encounter via El Bashayer:
UPDATE: I was cleaning out my files, folders, unnecessary bookmarks, etc and came across this older CNN report here. Even then the women were asking “What happened to the revolution we started in Tahrir Square?”. I can answer that. Activities in Tahrir (Cairo) and Alexandria were sort of like a democracy high school party. When the cops break it up and every one is forced to leave what are you left with? Vomit patches on your mom’s new carpet. The participants of the party swear they can relocate the party and continue on. Yet, have you ever made it to the rendezvous? The fun people went their own way and all that is left is a gathering of lonely followers with no clear direction; you mind as well entertain yourself and puke on the new carpet at the new party location.
Ameristroika 