Hi all

Hereby we are presenting you a second report from Egypt, about the same matter, which is really important to us.

Nobody has the right to sexually abuse, torture and rape people, if women or men.

In dictatorships, unfortunately, this is a typical weapon used against their own citizens. Sexual abuse makes victims incapable of fighting, incapable of reaction as it touches their dignity and destroys their self-consciousness. Therefore society and social movements in society which fight against sexual violence have to help them, protect them and support them at the Court when they sit in front of their rapist and have to give testimony.

But sexual abuse is not just a violation, but a crime against human dignity.

And ProMosaik e.V. stands for HUMAN DIGNITY as expressed in the MANIFESTO of the association.

From our point of view, we have to write about it to let people know where and how this crime is committed. And to let them know who are the coward people committing it day per day…

We know that for victims it is difficult to speak about it…. Many obstacles are there. Women are afraid of speaking if they lost their virginity by sexual abuse, as virginity is an essential religious and social value in Islam, and not only, but in all monotheistic religions.

But having been the victim of abuse is not a sin, it is a violation the women have suffered from, and against which they have to stand up. We need a large-scale social movement against sexual abuse. Sexual abuse must stop everywhere in the world. And what happened in India was just an example. And what happens in Egypt is another of the innumerous examples of abuse and oppression.

Sexual abuse is a coward crime of somebody who ignores the other’s dignity, of somebody who cowardly profits from the other who is in a weak position, for example as woman in an Egyptian prison during the new dictatorship we have in the country at the moment.   

The second important matter is not to forget the sexual abuses against men… Men do not speak because they feel they lose their virility… but this is wrong. An abused man who speaks and fights against the abuse of other men and women in society, for me personally is a real hero … a social hero and an authentic fighter for human rights… And these social movements against abuse of all kind will grow in the Islamic world, and nothing can stop them.

Happy to get your feedback to the following article.

Dr. phil. Milena Rampoldi

The Editorial Team of ProMosaik e.V.

Egyptian detainees ‘tortured and raped’

Activists say numerous political prisoners, including men and women, have been severely abused in custody.

Human rights activists have reported that a number of political detainees, including men and women, were tortured and raped while in police custody in Egypt.

Hytham Abu Khalil, a leading activist, told a news conference organised by the “Justice for Egypt” society in Geneva, Switzerland that 22-year-old university student who was also a member of the al-Nour Salafi party, was tortured and grossly raped inside a police station in Nasr city.

The Egyptian government has refused to comment on the alleged abuse of detainees.

Local media outlets have also turned a deaf ear to the claims and have to declined to launch official inquiries.
 
The student of al-Azhar University is still detained  since he was arrested along with one of his colleagues in a police ambush at the city’s al-Jabal al-Ahmar district. He was arrested late last February because a slogan for “Rabaa al-Adawiya” was found posted on his cellphone.
 
The victim was reportedly tortured by knives, electrocution and was beaten fiercely. He was then taken to a second-floor room where he was raped by security forces because he denied accusations that he was linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
 
He was also forced to name military coup leader Abdul Fattah al-Sisi “a great hero” and chanting a song titled: “Taslam al-Ayadi” ( may our deeds be blessed), Abu Khalil added..
 
Abu Khalil has called Egyptian and international civil rights organizations to intervene and help rescue the victim. He has  also called the Egyptian attorney general Hisham Barakat to immediately release the victim, launch an immediate inquiry into the violations and announce the results to the Egyptian people.
 
Khalil also says he is holding Egyptian Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim fully responsible for guaranteeing the safety of the attacked student and his family.
 
‘Acts of shame’
 
For his part, lawyer and human rights activist Ahmaed Bahaaddin has reaffirmed that rape crimes occur inside Egyptian prisons and detention centres, saying they were “shameful acts that smear the image of the ruling regime that gravely undermine Egypt’s honour and reputation both internally and abroad, after the Egyptian police opted for systematically abusing innocent civilians, instead of protecting them”.
 
In a statement to Al-Jazeera, Bahaaddin added that police torture and humiliate those arrested  by beating and kicking them, then gradually stepping up the violations into rape or homicide, particularly against young victims.
 
Bahaaddin has asserted the difficulty in counting the number of those exposed to rape attacks inside police stations because  many of those rape victims fear admitting the abuse or are still in custody.
 
Mustafa al-Hadda, another human rights activist, confirmed that what had occurred to the student from al-Azhar, was not the first incident of its kind in Egypt. This is because the incumbent regime has allegedly adopted the abuse as a policy against opponents of the government.

“The policy is to  humiliate, traumatize and  to render them politically impotent”, al-Hadda said.
 
Al-Hadda has disclosed to Al Jazeera that a group of detained students, including political activist Khalid al-Sayed, were raped in al-Azbakiya and Qasr al-Niel police stations after they were arrested for protesting.

Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/humanrights/2014/04/egyptian-detainees-tortured-raped-201441165823978172.html

Happy to read your feedback about this article soon

Khaled Kasrawy

The Editorial Team of ProMosaik