“Cairo, Egypt – Samira Ibrahim, then a relatively unknown 24-year-old woman from Upper Egypt, didn’t know she would be facing one of the hardest experiences she would ever face when she decided to participate in the sit-in in Tahrir Square on March 9, 2011.
After the military police evacuated the square, violently dispersing protesters, Samira, along with a number of other women who had been at the demonstration, were beaten, given electric shocks, strip-searched and said they were forced into receiving a “virginity test“, while being humiliated, video-taped and exposed by the military’s soldiers and officers.
Having struggled to put this case in front of courts, a court order was issued in December to stop this practice from being performed upon any other Egyptian woman. However, a military court has recently exonerated Ahmed Adel, the military doctor who had allegedly performed this forced “virginity test” upon Samira. The reaction of a number of Egyptians has been, surprisingly, to blame Samira for filing the case against the military in the first place. In fact, the more surprising factor is that this reaction has been popping up whenever a woman’s rights have clearly been violated by the military.”
