Mass Sexual Assault in Cairo

There is understandable uproar in the Egyptian blogosphere about... well, I'll let the Sandmonkey explain:

The story is as follows for the those of you who didn't hear about it: It was the first day of Eid, and a new film was opening downtown. Mobs of males gatherd trying to get in, but when the show was sold out, they decided they will destroy the box office. After accomplishing that, they went on what can only be described as a sexual frenxy: They ran around grabbing any and every girl in sight, whether a niqabi, a Hijabi or uncoverd. Whether egyptian or foreigner. Even pregnant ones. They grabbed them, molested them, tried to rip their cloths off and rape them, all in front of the police, who didn't do shit. The good people of downtown tried their best to protect the girls. Shop owners would let the girls in and lock the doors, while the mobs tried to break in. Taxi drivers put the girls in the cars while the mobs were trying to break the glass and grab the girls out. It was a disgusting pandamonium of sexual assaults that lasted for 5 houres from 7:30 PM to 12:30 am, and it truns my stomach just to think about it.
...
What was unusual was the silence of the press. Nobody was mentioning it. Nobody was bringing it up. It seemed like there was some consensus of just not reporting it and maybe it will just go away. What at first seemed like a conspiracy got later on confirmed by my sources in the news media. Al Jazeera had taped the incidents but were forbidden to air it at the request of the egyptian authorities. The new editor at the Daily Star refused to touch it with a 6 foot pole. This was going to be one of those incidents that only the blogsphere would talk about, while the mainstream media ignored.

Until Nawarah Negm blew the whole thing wide open on live television on the Dream Channel.

She was brought in as a writer to be part of a fluffy segment on Mona Al Shazly show talking about the Ramadan TV shows, and the girl's first response to the question was: "What Television shows do you want to discuss, when egyptian girls are assaulted on the streets of Cairo while the police watched and did nothing?" When Mona counterd that she never heard of it before, Nawarah told her all about it, in details and how it's all over the internet.

And one of the victims gives an account:

I am one of the females who got sexually harassed on downtown streets, more specifically on Talaat Harb street starting from Metro Cinema until the beginning of Sabry Abu Alam street.

There were two other friends with me, a female and her male.

We felt like we were in a war--I had my self defense spray was emptied on the endless number of guys who surrounded us and yet still wasn't enough.

We, girls, had our butts, breasts, and every inch in our bodies grabbed. I end up slipping into a car that was parking on the road side when I tried to catch one of the guys who insisted and never gave up on grabbing my butt. I end up with a deep cut in my right hand palm and another one on my thumb of the same hand as I slipped into the cars head light that broke and cut my hand. 6 stitches on my hand palm cut and 3 on my thumb--still my anger is pretty fresh in the deep inside of me that wants me to put all Egyptian men on fire right now for what they have caused. What the fuck mother fuckers? Don't you have sisters who can also face the same thing as we did? How the fuck would you feel about this knowing your sister's butt and breasts got grabbed by the guys on the street?

I think you better act cold towards that since you might be one of the assholes who grab other girls asses. But let me tell you this: It's NOT and NEVER the girl to blame you sons of a bitches, it's NEVER the girl, NEVER! It's you to blame for doing such things to girls who you could consider them sisters and try to protect them not fucking grab them and show the world the worst picture of how Muslim men are who say and insist on how good people they are, but to tell you the truth, Muslim men are the worst human being on the entire planet and they just don't know it. Oh no, they don't even deserve to be called human beings, they are ANIMALS--DIRTY PIGS! Mother fuckers, You're putting Islam in the worst image ever in front of the world, so don't be so surprised when the westerners call you TERRORISTS which I simply agree with them! Think about it, assholes, think about it!

If you haven't read any blogs from the Arab world yet, please follow the links. Don't comment here about "Muslims" being rapists. These are Muslim commentators, female and male, outraged and enraged about what was done to Muslim victims by Muslim perpetrators. This ain't a "Muslim" thing, in any simple sense.

Basically, religion is no fucking excuse. Religion deserves no special treatment. The Muslim world has got into a serious mess right now, but we're heading down the same path with our "faith" schools and our media pandering to any superstitious maniac who has the wit to pull a Diana face when challenged.

The voices you hear when you read the Muslim blogosphere are those of people who deserve to see our hands outstretched towards them, not the doors slamming shut in their faces.