guardian.co.uk,
Glen Johnson in Cairo and Luke Harding, Tuesday 20 December 2011
Hundreds of
women have taken to the streets of Cairo to protest against military rule and
the brutal treatment of female protesters by Egypt's security services.
The women
rallied outside a government office complex in Tahrir Square, the scene of
violent clashes earlier on Tuesday in which at least four demonstrators were
shot dead by military police.
Dozens of
men joined the demonstration out of sympathy with the women. They acted as a
protective cordon and chanted: "Egyptian women are a red line."
The protest
came after soldiers made another violent attempt to evict demonstrators camped
in the square, during the fifth day of bloody confrontation between the
military and opponents of army rule.
It also
followed condemnation of the treatment of female activists in Egypt by Hillary Clinton. The US secretary of state said she was appalled by the treatment being
meted out to female protesters – particularly by a photo showing a young woman,
stripped to her bra and jeans, being kicked and dragged along the ground by two
police officers.
"This
systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonours the revolution, disgraces
the state and its uniform and is not worthy of a great people," Clinton
said. She added: "Women are being beaten and humiliated in the same
streets where they risked their lives for the revolution only a few short
months ago."
Soldiers
fired live rounds and used batons to disperse demonstrators . The four
protesters killed during a dawn raid included a 19-year-old. All were shot. A
15-year-old protester, Ahmed Saad, was also said to be in a critical condition
from a gunshot wound.
Doctors
working in makeshift field hospitals said at least 13 people had been killed
and hundreds wounded since the latest unrest in Tahrir began last Friday.
Protesters demanding an immediate end to army rule have gathered in the square,
and in nearby streets leading to parliament and the cabinet office. The UN
secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has called the tactics used by the Egyptian
authorities "excessive".
During
Tuesday's demonstration, female activists handed out flyers depicting a hand –
emerging from a military uniform – stretching out to grope a frowning woman.
The writing over the flyer read: "Liars, stop the violence." Samea
Saleh, a woman wearing the niqab (veil), said that the military was attempting
to take away the Egyptian people's dignity.
Referring
to the images of the young woman lying half-naked on the street – her cloak
ripped in two – Saleh said such images showed nothing had improved under
military rule.
"What
they did to that woman was the ultimate insult. Why do they think we wear these
clothes? To have them stripped off us on the street? I'm here as part of the
revolution, which did not end in February," she said.
General
Adel Emara, a prominent member of Egypt's ruling military council, promised to
investigate the incident.
But
speaking earlier in the day he struck an uncompromising tone. Emara denied
giving orders to clear the square but said there were "evil forces"
in Egypt hellbent on chaos and insurrection. "What is happening does not
belong with the revolution and its pure youth, who never wanted to bring down
this nation," he said, praising what he called the
"self-restraint" shown by the security forces.
The latest
ugly clashes have overshadowed Egypt's parliamentary election, which started on
28 November and continues until 11 January.
Results so
far indicate that the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups will dominate
Egypt's post-revolutionary lower house of parliament – assuming the military
makes good on its promise to make way for a civilian government. Two opposition
parties called on Tuesday for the army to be replaced by a new president at the
end of next month.
Eyewitnesses
said the latest violence took place when protesters attempted to rip down a
brick wall erected by police and blocking access to parliament." Hundreds
of state security forces and the army entered the square and began firing
heavily. They chased protesters and burned anything in their way, including
medical supplies and blankets," one protester who gave his name only as
Ismail said, according to Reuters. "Some of those who fell had gunshot
wounds to the legs," he added, speaking by telephone from Tahrir.
But one
analyst suggested, that the current bloody impasse in Egypt was the fault not
just of the country's generals but of its protesters too. Writing in the
influential US magazine Foreign Policy, Steven A Cook said the goals of the
country's revolution at the start of this year – which saw the toppling of the
Hosni Mubarak – had turned into "squalid politics and the normalisation of
violence".
Cook said
Tahrir Square was now a "warped, demented, bizarre version" of its
original revolutionary self. He wrote: "It is easy to blame the Supreme
Council of the Armed Forces, as so many have, but the generals have also had a
lot of help. Each of Egypt's primary political actors – the military,
revolutionary groups, Islamists, and liberals – have contributed mightily to
the country's current political impasse and economic collapse through a
combination of incompetence, narcissism, and treachery. This has left a society
on the edge, one in which minor traffic accidents become near riots, soldiers beat
women with reckless abandon, and protesters burn the building containing some
of Egypt's historical and cultural treasures."
Over the
weekend the Institute of Egypt in Cairo caught fire, leading to the destruction
of numerous rare manuscripts. Sheikh Sultan bin Mohamed al-Qasimi, governor of
the UAE's emirate of Sharjah, said he would donate original manuscripts from
his own collection. "All the original documents in my private library I am
giving as a gift to the Egyptian Scientific Complex," he said in a phone
interview from Paris with the independent Egyptian satellite Channel Dream TV.
Qasimi
added that he asked for a complete list of all the books that were damaged or
lost during the fire and that he would do his best to look for other original
copies and give them to the library, known for its collection of priceless
books, maps, and manuscripts.
Related Article:
 |
Egyptian
army soldiers beat a female protester during clashes at Tahrir
Square, pulling
up her head scarf and dragging her through the street.
Photograph:
Reuters
|
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