You can read more about it here. The military says they didn't want any rape allegation and they knew these were "bad girls" because they camped out overnight with men. Oh the horror. In any case they found not one of the girls detained was a virgin after subjecting them to forced medical exams and repeated stun-gun attacks.

So does the Egyptian military mean that a girl who is not a virgin, but not married, cannot be raped? That seems to be the implication of the comments.

I know, the reality is that they just wanted to terrorize and shame the women, but damn, at least make a public statement that is remotely logical to a moron.

While this is shocking and disgusting, Mubarrak was a light weight dictator. Around the same time in Ivory Coast a rather large group of women protesters (many with children) were shot down in the street with machine guns. :-( Assad in Assyria is fond of this method too. Sudan just does the "rape and enslavement thing"...sigh...

Got any happy stories to start Tuesday off with?

Geico saved me a whole lotta money on my car insurance...how's that one for a starter?

Why yes...not sure this counts but I was mildly traumatized by a prime-time tv does of a Naked-Cult in Germany. haha

Although my fiancee was disgusted, I found it amusing.

Okay back to the topic.

It is with this kind of news that I find it difficult to argue with someone who accuse Middle Eastern countries to be a bunch of barbarians...



Still so much work to do and the question I can ask is: Will we achieve it? Will we be able to see real and true respect of the Human rights?

Those women who have been raped during the Revolutions have been raped again with this disgusting statement from the army.

I think this is not necessarily an issue solely pertaining to the middle east. I've noticed similar idiocy, wherever religion has a stronghold of society. These people simply lost the ability to sit down and cogigate about what's best for society...but much rather prefer to rest on old principles and cultural standards. We should abolish all religions I say.

I agree with you Buddy!

But Middle East is an easy target when it comes to pass judgements. And with statements like this, it doesn't help to grow a better image!

Certainly, but you could easly point a finger at Christian Africa..the only difference is, that the media spotlight is not necessarily directed at that IMO.

Although Christian Africans are pretty fundamentalist on average (compared to Western Christians) I see patterns, and you are right it is not necessarily the Middle East.

It is more like North Africa, Middle East, Horn of Africa, Caucasus (maybe parts of them), South Asia (including Hindus in India) tend to have this honor culture, and women are see as another extension of the lead males honor. How they act matters.

Virginity test, honor killings, etc this common trend of objectifying women as an object, usually in relation to the honor of men seems very very prevalent in these areas.

You don't see this in East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, nor in most of Africa that is not Muslim. I don't think it is specific to muslims, it is probably pre-Islamic, since there are cases where you see this in non-Muslims in India or Christians in Palestine/Lebanon.

Does that fit in with the Tragic Tuesday theme?

I brought this treatment of Women already here.

There is a reason for the "women only" carriages in the Cairo metro - but it's not politically correct to discuss it.

The attitude to women is not a religious thing, as such. Religion can be used either against or for women. Where there Christians and Muslims living in the same area, many of the local attitudes to women are identical regardless of religion. Communism has a slightly better record when it comes to the treatment of women. But only slightly. Consider what happened to women in the Gulags, for example.

I followed the accompanying blog to that picture from Lisa Goodman and she had this to say:

By the way, I took the photo of the subway route map while riding in a carriage reserved for women only. In general, sexual harassment in Egypt is annoying and a bit oppressive, but not nearly as bad as I had expected – and certainly no worse than the harassment I experienced while traveling in India, where I used to travel in the “ladies’ compartment” during long inter-urban train journeys.

It’s remarkably relaxing to travel in a women-only compartment.

Am I missing something?

Nope, you got it right - Sexual harassment is rife in Egypt.

"we were never harassed on the Metro like we were on the buses.''

Hence it's relaxing for Lisa Goldman (not goodman), who is a good looking western women to be away from it for a while.

Well only if they ban religion, as we all know bad people do bad things, religion is the only thing that makes otherwise good people do bad things.

There were also the virginity tests instituted by Margaret Thatcher's government mainly on Indian brides for immigration purposes.

What I find abhorrent is rape as a weapon of war. There are reports of mass rape in Libya with girls from the age of 13. The soldiers had been reportedly been given Viagra to aid the process.

However, others allege that the stories are not true and are being used excuse upping the ante by claiming war crimes

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/3...rape-campaign/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42824884...deastn_africa/

So the claims are being investigated by the ICC.

Tokyo metro is well known also for all types of sexual harrasment like groping (chikan). The women only passenger car is not specific to Cairo.

But I guess there are some people who are addicted to arab/muslim bashing when they find the opportunity to do it.

Religion doesn't do anything on people, it is people who do something on the name of religion.

Religion help also bad people to do good things and good people to do good things too.

Religion is not an excuse for being bad. It is too easy to put bad behavior on religion but the only one who do bad things and act badly is the person, not the religion.

You have more people doing good things from the religion than bad things. What is their excuse?

I have been sexually harassed and molested in every country except Iran. London packed tubes were the worst, French metro, Italy, Spain US work, clubs..... Women everywhere just put up with it for years, even though we teach our daughters not to. Things must be improving it hasn't happened to my daughter yet. She is tall, incredibly physically and mentally strong and has martial arts training. She has a very powerful and accurate kick.

There is no such thing as a truly accurate virginity test- it's a load of bunk.

You definitely have more people doing harm because of religion than actual good. Look at all the wars, slavery, random segregation etc. all based on religions.