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Image of Unknown Woman Beaten by Egypt's Military Echoes Around World
The woman is young, and slim, and fair. She lies on her back surrounded by four soldiers, two of whom are dragging her by the arms raised above her head. She's unresisting – maybe she's fainted; we can't tell because we can't see her face. She's wearing blue jeans and trainers. But her top half is bare: we can see her torso, her tummy, her blue bra, her bare delicate arms. Surrounding this top half, forming a kind of black halo around it, is the abaya, the robe she was wearing that has been ripped off and that tells us that she was wearing a hijab.
Six years ago, when popular protests started to hit the streets of Egypt as Hosni Mubarak's gang worked at rigging the 2005 parliamentary elections, the regime hit back – not just with the traditional Central Security conscripts – but with an innovation: militias of strong, trained, thugs. They beat up men, but they grabbed women, tore their clothes off and beat them, groping them at the same time. The idea was to insinuate that females who took part in street protests wanted to be groped.
Women developed deterrent techniques: layers of light clothing, no buttons, drawstring pants double-knotted – and carried right on protesting. Many of the smaller civil initiatives that grew into the protest movement: "We See You", "Against Corruption", "The Streets are Ours" were women-led.
But, a symbiotic relationship springs up between behaviors. Mubarak and Omar Suleiman turn Egypt into the US's favorite location for the torture of "terror suspects" and torture becomes endemic in police stations. The regime's thugs molest women as a form of political bullying – and harassment of women in the streets rises to epidemic levels.
Until 25 January. The Revolution happened and with it came the Age of Chivalry. One of the most noted aspects of behavior in the streets and squares of the 18 days of the Egyptian Revolution was the total absence of harassment. Women were suddenly free; free to walk alone, to talk to strangers, to cover or uncover, to smoke to laugh to cry to sleep. And the job of every single male present was to facilitate, to protect, to help. The Ethics of the Square, we called it.
Now our revolution is in an endgame struggle with the old regime and the military.
The young woman is part of this.
Since Friday the military has openly engaged with civilian protesters in the heart of the capital. The protesters have been peacefully conducting a sit-in in Ministries' Street to signal their rejection of the military's appointment of Kamal Ganzouri as prime minister.
Ganzouri announced that no violence would be used to break up the Cabinet Office sit-in. Moments later the military took on the protesters. For a week Military Police and paratroopers had kidnapped activists from the streets, driven them off in unmarked vehicles, interrogated them and beaten them. On Friday they kidnapped Aboudi – one of the "Ultras" of the Ahli Football Club. They gave him back with his face so beaten and burned that you couldn't see features – and started the street war that's been raging round Ministries' Street for the last three days.
The protesters have thrown rocks at the military. The military has shot protesters, and thrown rocks, Molotov cocktails, china embossed with official parliament insignia, chairs, cupboards, filing-cabinets, glass panes and fireworks. They've dragged people into parliament and into the Cabinet Office and beaten and electrocuted them – my two nieces were beaten like this.
They beat up a newly elected young member of parliament, jeering: "Let parliament protect you, you son of … ". They took a distinguished older lady who's become known for giving food to the protesters and slapped her repeatedly about the face till she had to beg and apologize. They killed 10 people, injured more than 200, and they dragged the unconscious young woman in the blue jeans – with her upper half stripped – through the streets.
The message is: everything you rose up against is here, is worse. Don't put your hopes in the revolution or parliament. We are the regime and we're back.
What they are not taking into account is that everybody's grown up – the weapon of shame can no longer be used against women. When they subjected young women to virginity tests one of them got up and sued them. Every young woman they've brutalized recently has given video testimony and is totally committed to continuing the struggle against them.
The young woman in the blue jeans has chosen so far to retain her privacy. But her image has already become icon. As the tortured face of Khaled Said broke any credibility the ministry of the interior might have had, so the young woman in the blue jeans has destroyed the military's reputation.
44 Comments so far
Show AllBehold America's future. When the pepper spray and the angry NYPD "white shirts" fail to stop the OWS'ers what do you think is going to happen?
true dat
people need to comprehend that all of the arab spring and the color revolutions from the eastern bloc were all stage managed by the amerikan government via the cia and the ngo's
the amerikan government has not been reluctant to kill citizens in the past and as we all notice they are fixin' to get at it in the not to distant future when the managed financial collapse puts millions of amerikans at starvation's door
population control - eugenics - call it what you will
let's be mindful of the fact as well that the weapons used in killing their own population in egypt and all the other countries noted are supplied by amerikan taxpayers
much like it is in israel
the beat goes on....
Anyone who thinks that the USG isn't orchestrating the brutal crackdown by the Egyptian army and police is a fool. It's just a preview of what is and will intensify against USAn's. The official order that the US Military can conduct policing in the USA just as the Egyptian USG funded military does in Egypt is now codified and President Obomnable Kabuki theatre performance, threatened veto, never materialized.
Anyone who thinks the Egyptian military isn't fully capable of orchestrating its own brutal crackdown is a fool. What is true is that the US will stand by and let it happen with barely a whimper of protest.
Anyone who thinks only his own ideas and opinions have merit is a fool. Have you any proof of your assertion of "orchestration"? No, I think not.
Consider the old saw about power corrupting and absolute power corrupting absolutely. During the so-called Arab Spring the army actually protected the demonstrators from Mubarek's thugs. They searched for weapons and generally were a force that abetted the movement. Now that the army is in charge they have been corrupted by a refusal to give up what was supposedly temporary power.
I agree. Whether orchestrating, partnering, sanctioning this brutal military crackdown in Egypt, they are THERE, just like they are EVERYWHERE. They are the world's BIG BROTHER. When it conveniently was just Mubarak, we heard from the imposter in the White House daily. Now, he has nothing to hide behind. All you hear is bromides from him and Hillary.
Nonetheless, it is Egypt's governmentally-hired thugs perpetrating the sickest and most horrible violence on non-violent protestors. Egyptian citizens thought they had won a revolution, but it turned out to be a total canard. It was stolen from them by the US-supported military enforcers.
Tahrir Square in January of this year inspired the entire world and the protest movement spread. Why in a show of solidarity can't the OCCUPY MOVEMENT, which is anti-corporate state, therefore anti-MIC and anti-defense budget spending that exceeds all the world's countries combined, demonstrate in front of the Egyptian embassy?
You mean the beatDOWN goes on...
"people need to comprehend that all of the arab spring and the color revolutions from the eastern bloc were all stage managed by the amerikan government via the cia and the ngo's"
Nonsense. The last thing the US wants in the Middle East is more instability. Why did Obama hesitate to endorse the Egyptian Revolution and delayed calling for Mubarak's ouster if the CIA was behind the uprising against him. As noted in the article, under Mubarak the CIA's extraordinary rendition and torture operations flourished to the satisfaction of the US gov't. Why get rid of him? The Arab Spring uprisings were home born and bred. The CIA isn't behind everything that goes on in the world as you seem to think. And a genuine pro-democracy movement such as the one in Egypt would be a very strange thing for the CIA to be mixed up in.
I think that the authorities have badly miscalulated the effects of their actions.
At one time, these severe acts of repression succeeded in cowing the population into submission, but now they have lost their fear, and their brutality only serves to inflame the anger that much more.
Once the fear is gone, brutality and violence become counter-productive.
A Romanian friend who was attending University at the time of their revolution described it to me. There was an incident to which the people finally said, "enough". It was like a switch had been flipped. After that the government could no longer order them off the streets or impose curfew. The threat of beatings and death was no longer a deterrent to the people. At that point the people were heading out irregardless and would no longer obey the government and the Romanian government soon fell.
The question will become whether Americans will have the same level of moral courage that has been displayed in Egypt. The regime here clearly is a corrupt and prone to violence as is the military regime in Egypt. But with half of our population plunged into poverty, the motives will be there to resist. We need to find our courage.
Savages
Makes me want to pick up a gun
That day may very well come EZ. The Left's infatuation with peaceful resistance will assure its demise and the 1%'s final and brutal victory.
Violence is the 1%'s trump card. And they are masters at playing it.
I didn't think the revolution was over by a long shot...Egyotians were rejoicing the removal of Mubarrak and his cronies but did not realise that its the military that has to be brought down. Power is a very heady trip and to disengage those that hold power, death is the only alternative (particualry in that part of the world where ego's reign). The only solution is for the people of Egypt to rise and rise ferociously against those brutal savages within the upper echelon of the military...It seems a very strong religiuous movement could pave the way for very strong militant action by the people...all the people...we need people power in millions...to overthrow the stooges of the U.S.A. and the zionists...
Not noted in the text is that one of her abusers is poised to kick the young woman in the lower abdomen. Such a kick can do severe damage to female reproduction. It seems all hell is breaking loose around the world and yes, this will be happening in the U.S. quite openly and frequently before long.
Not kick, stomp on. Look at the position of his foot, and his balance.
If he did stomp on her stomach, I hope she received competent medical care immediately after. That could have killed her, and for all we know her silence about the crime might be because she's dead or dying.
America and Israel negotiated to have the Army installed as the defacto government. Did we really think anything had changed? You think NATO and Obama are going to support the people of Egypt the way they did the mysterious "rebels" in Libya? Not unless the people of Egypt can open a new bank.
Egypt's only role today is to contain the Palestinians, they have no economic power. And today that's the only thing that counts. No money, no oil...no clout. The US and Israel couldn't possibly allow a democracy in Egypt. They might decide democratically to open the Palestinian border.
So the next time the U.S. invades a country in order to give them a democratic government like we did with the now democratic Iraq we will all laugh into our teacups and refuse to let the war for democracy commence?
It looks to me like sometime soon we are going to be bringing democracy to Yemen, Somalia, Libya, eventually Syria and Pakistan. And, of course, there's no guarantee we're not already part of the Egyptian kerfuffle. Stay tuned, there is so much work to be done by the CIA and DHS as we liberate the world.
There is never a shortage of thugs and goons, it's what they are, it's what they do, The criminal and moral responsibility lies square on leaders and their politcal will to organize and use the thugs and goons.
It the Terrible Times to come we will see more not less of inhuman behavior of this and worse sort in all societies, including the USA. Still, if you want to live in this world as a human being, you have to take a stand.
Meanwhile, in Washington and in its "embassies", there are plenty of people trying to figure out how they can use this corruption, murder, and abuse to further U.S. global corporate domination.
State power at work!
The new normal. Who's that knocking at my door!!?
Ahdaf has written an excellent article from a woman's perspective and rightly so. Women are the strength behind every man and in this case in front of every man. Remember Neda Agha-Soltan?
Aside from the article itself I must take um-bridge with most of the comments. Anti Americanism is not a new thing, but to imply that the US in control of Egypt is absolutely ludicrous. Who trained the Generals - Russia; who provided them with tanks - Russia; who provided their infantry fighting vehicles - Russia; who developed their air defense system - Russia; and who provided fighter aircraft - Russia. So who is pulling the strings? Certainly not the US of A.
Michael V, I beg to differ, but if you just google "arms sales to Egypt" you will find that the USA is one of a number of NATO nations which sells arms to Egypt. It leads in sales followed by the UK. Even Canada, under Dear Leader Harper, sells arms to the Egyptian military. I did not see Russia as one of the main arms vendors in this case.
The Egyptian military is a wholly owned subsidiary of the pentagon and they are totally corrupt and dedicated to keep on making a fortune above everything else. There are limits to what the United States and Israel will tolerate in the name of democracy and I believe they will work with the Islamist parties in order to short circuit any real reforms.
The Egyptian military is a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell (the Suez Canal ring any bells for you?)
Shell founded by the Marcus Samuels' family with extensive leveraged support by the Rothschilds and the British Empire for the sole purpose of putting gentile John D. Rockefeller out of business.
The authorities in Egypt have a major problem because the people have lost their fear. In their efforts to reinstate that fear, they are succeeding only in inflaming the peoples' anger and hatred against them. The violence which they have initiated in Tahrir Square will prove to be counter-productive.
This is how much scumbag republicans and democrat and their clueless rank and file love humanity and democracy!!
Any one link the hypocrisy of the OBama Admin? When this type of thing happened under Mubarak rule, Obama was quick to offer a public rebuttal. Now that it is happening under the military regime Obama supports, not a peep can be heard from the White House. Maybe MM can produce another excuse for Obama via documentary blaming this on the neo conservative nut jobs.
These sorts of things happen every day in minority communities in every big city in America. The police here in Denver kill people on a regular basis and nothing every happens to them. Recently a police dog seriously mauled a 16 year old boy walking to his uncle's house (a black boy) and then the cops beat him senseless. A couple years ago cops beat a teenager (Hispanic) so badly he lost a kidney. Years ago two notorious cops conducted a vaginal search of one of my black client's in broad daylight on the street.
We have true sociopaths running western society and the cops just reflect the mindset of their masters. Kim Jong-il died and the pundits write about his bizarre behavior and the poor living conditions of his people, but compared to the sociopaths running America Kim seems like Mother Theresa's love child. Kim didn't slaughter millions of innocent people in the name of "freedom" and "decomcracy."
And they can get away with it, just like the Egyptian military gets away with it, because they have the guns and they control all the instruments of power. And every society has the apologists for the sociopaths. Watch W at baseball games surrounded by worshipers.
A friend posted the video showing what was done to this woman and to others. The thugs stomped on her chest and I thought "how can she survive that?"
I watched the video of this woman being beaten PatK mentioned. It was bad, several cops kept running up to her and either kicking her or hitting her with batons. found the video by accident on youtube. I think she was at least conscious when they we beating her.
If the Islamists get control of the government, who knows but the next victim of beatings will be some hapless woman who refused to wear the hijab? This is not to excuse the actions of the military but to say that a legally elected government of rightists might be just as brutal as the present bunch of thugs.
Did you ever stop to think why the only organized political parties in the country are the religious parties, while there is a complete lack of a secular alternative? It's hard not to notice this looking at Egypt. Obviously, there is a consistent policy in Muslim countries to keep the religious parties alive, while ruthlessly smashing any secular alternative to the left. Then when a revolutionary upheaval happens somebody like Mubarak will claim he is protecting the nation from the clutches of the religious parties. I don't think most Egyptians care much for this false "choice" between a military junta and Islamic theocracy that has been forced onto them.
Secularism appears to be associated with wealth and higher class, religious parties with poverty and illiteracy. When the people are empowered to elect a new government, they do not forget those divisions. I suspect that a democratically elected religious-based government will inflict a lot of pain on the non-religious and on those espousing a different religion. The same thing happened in Iran with the fall of the Shah--another example of a revolution gone sour. In the absence of a well-educated electorate democracy can produce results that conflict with modernism, women's rights, science, and human rights generally.
Yes. As in Egypt where one group of thugs is traded for another, Amerika first votes for W Bush then votes for Barry Obama. In both cases they are simply another form of the same brutality and repression.
If she were an Iranian protester, then you can bet her name would be known and getting plenty of media attention. But this is a military junta armed by Washington.
The military is digging in and doing everything in its power to smash the Egyptian uprising. Looks like the Egyptian people don't have much choice but to do what they did earlier in the year, and make the country ungovernable. Egypt is not a major resource exporter and relies heavily on archaeological tourism for hard currency. So a broadbased uprising in Egypt can have a much great impact than it would in other countries in the region.
I believe this is the video of this woman being beaten. Be warned it is not easy to watch. http://www.youtube.com/verify_controversy?next_url=/watch%3Fv%3D4iboFV-yeTE%26feature%3Drelated
Back when Mubarak fell people told me that Egypt just had a revolution. I said NO. The facade of the puppets fell--thats all. There will only be a revolution when the power structure, the military, falls. Egypt is no where near that. Military huntas don't collapse without wars. Look at Libya. France. America. Russia, etc.
Would have been nice if the hype were true; but it was just superficial fantasy--no more, no less. Mainly propagated by the deluded US media. Same old, same old...
Military dictatorship run amok - same as here.