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Subscribe to RSSCAIRO - An Egyptian military court on Sunday acquitted an army doctor charged with carrying out a forced virginity test on a female detainee during protests last year, said a court source, in a case that has fuelled anger against the ruling generals.
Activist Samira Ibrahim, who defied taboos in the conservative Muslim country to raise her case, said she was forced to undergo a virginity test in March last year after she was arrested during a protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
Ibrahim's and similar cases stoked criticism of the generals who took control of Egypt after Hosni Mubarak was driven from office on Feb. 11, 2011, by a popular uprising.
"The army doctor Ahmed Adel was found not guilty in the case of virginity tests because of conflicting witness accounts," said the military judicial source, who asked not to be named.
Egypt's state news agency confirmed Sunday's court ruling, adding that the accounts of three witnesses in the case conflicted with a fourth.
Ibrahim declined to comment to Reuters after the ruling.
Outside the court, around 30 protesters gathered, shouting: "Down down military rule" and "We demanded dignity and change. Instead they stripped our girls in Tahrir".
Controversy over the virginity tests gathered pace after a general was quoted by CNN last year as saying tests were carried out to prove the women were not virgins when they were detained, so they could not say they were raped in detention.
An army official later denied the comments were made.
Ibrahim was sentenced to a one-year suspended prison term for insulting authorities, joining an illegal assembly and breaking a curfew.
A civilian court issued a ruling in December ordering the army to end the practice and a military judicial official then said cases of reported forced virginity tests had been transferred to the Supreme Military Court.
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While I agree with your post 100%, I also think we should bring back the Crusades.
The USA has just spent billions to send a mostly Christian army into two different countries for ten years of war against Muslims...
You want to bring back the crusades???
How do you tell? What do you test to see if someone is still a virgin or not? I was yanking off at 12 but I never had a women until I was in college. How do you tell?
This should be common practice everywhere! My future wife agreed to be tested before I would marry her. She didn't want to do it to at first, but she finally agreed to it after I beat the s*** out of her. We have been happily married every since!!
Well you Americans in Texas do know how to live up to the ideals of the America dream like no one else.
Jesus used to do vagina exams on all his women friends, that's why he eventually decided to pal around with an ex-prostitute.
Happily married? Maybe you are but then it takes a long time for arsenic, in the correct doses, to finally put you out of her misery!
Coming to a neighborhood near you if one of the Republican Ayatollahs are elected president.
It's worse than that already.
Islam? A rude, misleading, disgusting, overbearing system of removing freedom and controlling humans with fear. I suppose the question is, "Why do they tollerate it?"
There is a better life for you. Rise up people and throw the ashes of your oppressors to the wind.
The same applies to Christianity and all organized religions.
Ignore the reply above. The government lets stupid people own computers too.
Fred, it's nice to know that you're entitled to an opinion but that anyone who disagrees with your ideology and agenda is not entitled to his/her opinion. You would feel right at home in a Muslim governed nation or communist ruled nation.
You're just one example of what is wrong with organized religion and/or religious zealots.
I do believe, that the British had a virginity test for Lady Di, before she married Chuckles. I thought THAT was rude! I also believe, they DIDN'T do that to Kate, thankfully.
You'll notice that was not ever mentioned when Kate became part of the family. Proof that even the stogiest of people can evole when they try.
The Di test didn't change the fact that she did most of the men she met after marriage.
Don;t you guys get it? The US (if the GOP has their way), is becoming more and more like the Middle East every day. The GOP wants to deny birth control to women. Boys will be boys, but good girls don't. Sometimes birth control doesn't work. Sometimes teenaged girls get pregnant because they're uninformed about how one can get pregnant (GOP doesn't want sex ed taught either). The transvaginal ultrasounds are so similar to the practice mentioned in this article, it's downright scary. Our female soldiers are being raped by their male comrades in arms. There was just an article last week spelling out how common that is. So don't go telling us American women we're spoiled because women in the Middle East can be dragged off the street and raped at will. Women in our armed services can be raped at will and if they try and report it, they're rebuked. Women here are trying to stop the mass assault on women brought by the GOP and by religious groups. If you're okay with the US becoming more like the Middle East -- the very countries we fight against, then go ahead and vote GOP. That's how this conversation came about -- the US becoming more like the Middle East. Oh, and if you vote GOP and support their assault on woomen, then you are not a believer in democracy
Holly- Great post- No matter where in the world, there are MEN that think that they know what's best for women, and what to do with their body's and reproductive rights. And then there are the women who let, male dominated Religion, tell them what to do, and believe.
This was not about control. It was about humiliation. Many male inmates complain of being raped. For the humiliation of anyone who dared to challenge the authority.
Well of course the Military is going to find the Doctor innocent. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Women have no right's in that part of the world.
I fail to see how not wanting to buy a woman contraceptives is the same as being opposed to contraception; I don't want to pay for everybody's magazine subscriptions or cable bills, but that doesn't mean I'm against the 1st Amendment. I love co-eds in bikinis but if I buy them bathing suits, my wife gets MAD.
Having insurance means you pay the premiums, not the tax payer, another Limpballs lie!
But it's okay to buy men Viagra, right? Don't try to tell me we are on a level playing field. It's okay for men to have sex, even if they have to have medical intervention. But under no circumstances will you allow the same freedom to women. By any chance, are you muslin?
If you want to buy insurance that covers Viagra, contraception, pregnancy, cosmetic surgery or biannual gender modifications, that's OK, just don't make me have to subsidize it by mandating I have the same coverage. If you live in Montana you shouldn't have to buy flood insurance so that the people living in Miami don't have to pay so much.
Amen Florida!
It wouldn't matter if she was a virgin, they'd just cornhole her anyway.
i'm from egypt and when i was raised over there in 50ties 60ties and 70ties it was very modest and no one dare to do such test, i feel ashamed of what have been done to those revolutionar y women from the military rulling i wish the egyptians choose a civilian president and get the millitary people out of all civilian offices as governor or head of most companies we should have a real democratic civilian government as in the time of king farouk, let the millitary go back to the bases and takecare of defending the country (egyptian women the first in the world have the right to vote in the very early 19 centuray
MacArthur would have worked wonders with these people, just as he did with Japan. just LOOK at that former warrior culture today, and ALL thanks to Mac!
This bogus ruling and virginity test are both a part of Sharia Law - which translates to LEGALIZED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE! Nothing different, its a strict version of a Muslim law system that favors men in honor killings, acid burning & plenty of other evil deeds, without any punishment handed out to the male offender period. Because in Islam, its the woman whom brings this disgrace to their family by defying a male Muslim in any way shape or form!
If this egyptian doctor does this test in the US, he might be disappointed
Boy, I haven't heard of anything that medieval since Jerry Falwell was alive.
Women of America, watch this VERY closely! How long before Republicans like Perry start the same thing here? If we don't stamp out this trend of intimidating women who disagree with them, we will be the in the very same situation. Men who believe THEY have the right to dictate to us what we can or cannot do! I know the economy is important, but so are personal freedoms! You never know what you had until they take it away from you.
DON’T allow men to take our freedoms!
It would be pointless to run virginity tests in Texas, no-one over the age of 12 would pass.
Or California. And I think THAT is closer to 8 in CA.
California virgin = Ugly third grader.
The Egyptians forcing a women to allow men to check if she's still a virgin, which I don't advocate, is pretty bad. It's one step away from taking her virginity. But, it's worse for a woman to be forced to let somebody stick a probe inside them. The same results could be reached by a normal ultrasound. The Republicans have a nationwide campaign going to use this to reduce, or even stop abortions. The Senaters, Congressemen, and Governors of these states, who voted for this, or let it become law should be forced to present themselves before at least two people, and let the doctors insert the probe into them, as far as it would normally be inserted into the women seeking abortion. This procedure is rape, unless the woman wants the probe inserted into her. The state governments that are forcing this procedure on unwilling women, need to pay for the cost of each and every ultrasound mandated by them. As for the adoption argument, I don't accept it, while there are thousands of orphans who have yet to be adopted, in this country.
Would you support the measure if it specified external ultrasound?
They sure screwed up the ladies plan to scream r a p e and get a free pass into the US.
Virginity tests....next on the republican agenda. They are probably ticked off that they weren't the ones to think of it!
I see why they do that now. You test her to see if she's a virgin. If she is, you put her back in her cell. If she isn't, you rape her. Religion of peace my a$$!
For the rest of the story, and yes, there is more to it than what is told here, go to: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/03/2012311104319262937.html and read the story there. You'll find that Dr. Ahmed Adel didn't get off absolutely scott free, and then you'll find out that In December, an Egyptian court ordered a halt to virginity tests on female detainees in military prisons.
Wow, left AND right folks, can you say hyperbole..........
A once great culture devolved into barbarians. It's tragic.
The US or Egypt? I'm afraid the answer is 'All of the Above'
the mind-set of most (notice I say most, not all) of middle eastern males is that females are property, simply breeding stock to be used and if so wished abused... women have no say over their own bodies... including reproductive rights... that this doctor was acquitted speaks volumes about how they view women....
the "virginity" testing is a means to control and humiliate and sexually abuse women ...
fyi: my ancestors came from the middle east and my father warned me to never, ever marry a man from the middle east because of the worldview that women have no equality, no rights, no say.... especially over their own bodies...
bty: sound familiar? yep! we're hearing the same heifer dust debate right here in America...
Sam Colt made all men (as in mankind) equal. That's why my daughters can shoot as well as (or better than) most men. Might doesn't make right, but it certainly tilts the board in your favor if you're the big guy, and the other person is unarmed. I suspect that if the gals in the ME were allowed firearms, they might not be quite as abused.
typical egyptian b.s. court system..ignoring womens rights and...just basic human and moral decency..I suspect this doctor will soon be promoted...sigh...