Archive
Honor isn’t in the Hymen
The walls of the Egyptian High Court are adorned with a mishmash of revolutionary graffiti, many of it faces of incarcerated activists who’ve had marches calling for their release reach the High Court where the Public Prosecutor’s office is located. There is Amr El-Beheiry, Alaa Abdel-Fatah (both since released) and the still incarcerated Ahmed Douma. And last Friday on Egyptian women’s day (March 16) a new face was added to the wall, that of Samira Ibrahim.
Her image is now iconic in Egypt, the poster child of the infamous virginity tests, that inexplicable method of sexual assault that was conducted on seven female protesters in a military prison in March 2011. Samira was the first of the seven to speak out about being subjected to the tests and has launched a legal campaign against the military. Read more…
Martyrs and Mourning on Mohamed Mahmoud
I know Mohamed Mahmoud Street quite well, albeit in more tempered times. I used to traipse down it back and forth while a student at the American University in Cairo. This is not meant as an introduction to a piece along the lines of Mohamed Mahmoud through the eyes of an Aucian, merely to point out that it is a street I am familiar with, by virtue of having attended a university whose two main campuses line the street.
Admittedly it was off-putting to see tear gas crack through the glass of what used to be the library on the Greek Campus last November during the first Mohamed Mahmoud clashes, but the street has become much more than just the path between one classroom and another. It’s become the main locale for a fight, both real and symbolic, over this country, interrupted by concrete walls and shattered shop facades.
Depending on your mood – inspired or despondent – Mohamed Mahmoud is a street of struggle, of great bravery in the face of a heavily armed adversary, of sacrifice, not just of life but also of limbs, of eyes. It is also a street of death, of senseless loss, blood spilt yet to be paid for. The murderers get away time and time again. Read more…
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