A prominent Egyptian general admitted that female protesters arrested during protests in Tahrir Square in March were forced to undergo virginity tests, according to a report by US television channel CNN.
Military authorities had previously denied allegations about the virginity tests made by Amnesty International and Egyptian rights groups.
On 28 March, the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces vowed to initiate investigations into claims that some armed forces personnel tortured women arrested in Tahrir Square. However, the council has yet to announce the outcome of the investigations
“These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found in the tents Molotov cocktails and (drugs)," said the general, who spoke on condition of anonymity, in defense of the test.
The general also told CNN that the virginity checks were a precautionary step so the protesters wouldn’t later claim they had been raped by the Egyptian authorities.
“We didn't want them to say we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove that they weren't virgins in the first place," the general said. "None of them were (virgins).”
However, the statements made by the source contradicted those previously made by Major General Amr Imam, who said that 17 women had been arrested but denied the Amnesty International allegations of torture or virginity tests.
Amnesty International had earlier called on Egyptian authorities to launch investigations in this regard.
“After army officers violently cleared the square of protesters on 9 March, at least 18 women were held in military detention,” said the Amnesty report.
Female protesters told Amnesty International that they were beaten, given electric shocks, subjected to strip searches while being photographed by male soldiers and forced to submit to "virginity checks." They were then threatened with being charged for prostitution.
Salwa Hosseini, one of the women named in the Amnesty report, told CNN that uniformed soldiers tied her up on the grounds of the Egyptian Museum, slapped her and shocked her with a stun gun while calling her a prostitute.
"They wanted to teach us a lesson. They wanted to make us feel that we do not have dignity," she said.
Hosseini added that she, along with another 16 female prisoners, were taken to a military detention center in Heikstep, where they were forced to undergo virginity tests.
Threatened with more stun gun shocks, the women followed orders.
“I was going through a nervous breakdown at that moment," she recalled. "There was no one standing during the test, except for a woman and the male doctor. But several soldiers were standing behind us watching the backside of the bed. I think they had them standing there as witnesses.”
The senior military official told CNN that authorities arrested 149 people on 9 March and sent them to military courts. Some were sentenced to a year in prison. However, the sentences were then revoked as "some of the detainees were revealed holding university degrees, so (the military) decided to give them a second chance.”
Translated from the Arabic Edition
