It is not safe for women in Tahrir Squre: Dutch journalist gang raped in Tahrir Square

[cali]

It's the rape of a western journalist that gets the attention but it's maddening and sad that women in Tahrir Square are at a high risk of abuse and rape.

A Dutch journalist has been raped by a group of five men in Cairo's central Tahrir Square as millions of protesters take to the streets to demand the removal of Egypt's President Mohammed Mursi, according to reports.

The woman is believed to have undergone surgery for horrific injuries sustained in the attack, as a volunteer vigilante group formed to protect women in Tahrir Square reported a new wave of sexual violence by groups of men targeting women.

Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment said it had recorded 44 cases of sexual assaults and harassment against women on Sunday night alone, the highest number it had encountered since the group was formed in November 2012.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/five-men-rape-journalist-22-in-tahrir-square-reports-20130702-2p8sk.html#ixzz2XsNzvsOt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. As long as women aren't safe from assault, nobody is safe. Nobody.

[aquart]

2. They have a long bloody way to go.

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. Soldiers or police acting under cover on Mursi's orders to discredit the anti-Mursi movement. n/t

[cali]

6. or just mob mentality and the pervasive anti-woman view held by so many in Egypt.

[Dash87]

8. I doubt it. It's the whole country's attitudes towards women.

[Recursion]

10. Or, you know, a crowd full of rapey bastards (nt)

[East Coast Pirate]

4. Religion.

Although sexual harassment is not new to Egypt, suspicions abound that many of the recent attacks are organised by opponents of various protests in a bid to drive people away.

Amnesty International said in a report last year that such attacks appeared to be designed to intimidate women and prevent them from fully participating in public life.

[LiberalLoner]

5. This will hurt the tourism trade. Egypt needs tourists.

[get the red out]

7. They will just reap what they sew then

If their attitudes towards women lead to this, they don't deserve a tourism industry.

[alp227]

9. But Daniel Tosh STILL thinks it's funny for a woman to be raped by five guys. AAAAAAUGGGGH!

Rape culture knows no boundaries. Sadly those men probably got away with it and will rape ANOTHER innocent woman in Egypt.

[Cleita]

12. Too bad a group of women doesn't grab one of them and geld them just to send a

message. No I'm not really condoning this. It would be a very bad move, but thinking about it is sweet.

[Cleita]

11. I heard an opinion offered today, that Muslim extremists are doing this to prove that

women should not be out there demonstrating for equal rights. It's a scare tactic and a brutal one. It's really going to be hard to turn a patriarchal society like this one, especially when it's fortified with a religion that keeps women in an inferior position. I think that western news organizations probably need to keep their women journalists out of there unless they provide some good security to protect them.