CAIRO: Award-winning Egyptian columnist Mona el-Tahawy has recounted on her personal Twitter account the sexual assault at the hands of the Egyptian police after she was detained for nearly 12 hours on Thursday morning in Cairo. The writer said she was blindfolded for at least two hours and questioned repeatedly. She said that it was the “worst” sexual assault she had ever experienced. “Besides beating me, the dogs of CSF subjected me to the worst sexual assault ever,” she said on Twitter. “5 or 6 surrounded me, groped and prodded my breasts, grabbed my genital area and I lost count how many hands tried to get into my trousers,” she wrote, detailing her experience shortly after being released on Thursday early afternoon. Tahawy was en route to a hospital, where she was going to have her arm x-rayed to determine the extent of the injuries she received. She said that the police continued to grab and grope at her for hours during her detention. At around 1 AM, el-Tahawy wrote on her personal Twitter account, “Pitch black, only flashing ambulance lights and air thick with gas Mohamed Mahmoud #Tahrir.” She is one of dozens of journalists and observers who has been arrested in the past week of fighting, which has left many international rights groups concerned. The violence, according to Bikyamasr.com medical sources, has left over 90 people dead and thousands of Egyptians injured in the violence, mainly on Mohamed Mahmoud street leading to the main Tahrir Square. The 44 year-old was born in Port Said, but has since lived in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Israel, before settling in the US in 2000. “I can barely imagine what my family and loved ones were going through those 12 hours-I know they were worried about me to begin with. Sorry,” she added. BM
