Tahrir Square in Cairo was the center of Egypt’s pro-democracy movement in 2011. It was also the site of a lot of rapes.
Yesterday thousands of Egyptians gathered in Tahrir Square to celebrate the inauguration of Egypt’s seventh president Abdelfatah El Sisi. While many television networks have been featuring footage of large unified crowds cheering and holding Egyptian flags, one YouTube user posted a video from Tahrir Square, shot on his mobile phone, which documented a much grimmer reality for the country.
The original video, which was removed from YouTube due to its graphic nature, shows a naked, injured woman, attempting to flee a large group of men who have sexually assaulted her in the middle of the square.
The sexual assault was reposted by YouTube user Marwan Arafah, and already has over 148,000 views.
In another video that has gone viral, a Tahrir Channel correspondent is shown reporting live from Tahrir Square. During the report, she mentions a high number of sexual harassment cases. Before she is finished with her report, the in-studio anchor talks over her and states “they are just happy.”
The Ministry of Interior released a statement claiming that it had arrested seven men between the ages of 15 and 49 for sexually assaulting “a number of women” and for injuring a police officer.
Although the sexual assault epidemic is nothing new in Egypt, recently there has been an extended initiative by the government to crack down on the issue. Before stepping down last week, Interim President Adly Mansour passed a law criminalizing all forms of sexual harassment, regardless of the medium through which it occurs.
A Dutch journalist has been raped by a group of five men in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square as millions of protesters take to the streets to demand the removal of Egypt’s President Mohammed Mursi, according to reports.
The woman is believed to have undergone surgery for horrific injuries sustained in the attack, as a volunteer vigilante group formed to protect women in Tahrir Square reported a new wave of sexual violence by groups of men targeting women.
Perhaps democracy and increased freedom are not a good idea for a people so barbaric?
On Wednesday night, when Egypt’s army chief announced the forced departure of Mohamed Morsi, the streets around Tahrir Square turned into an all-night carnival. But not everyone there was allowed to celebrate. Among the masses dancing, singing and honking horns, more than 80 women were subjected to mob sexual assaults, harassment or rape. In Tahrir Square since Sunday, when protests against Morsi first began, there have been at least 169 counts of sexual mob crime.
Who can forget what happened to 60 Minutes reporter Lara Logan in Tahrir Square in 2011?
On 15 February 2011, CBS News released a statement that Logan had been beaten and sexually assaulted on 11 February, while covering the celebrations in Tahrir Square following Hosni Mubarak’s resignation.[18] CBS 60 Minutes broadcast an interview with her about it on 1 May 2011; she said she was speaking out because of the prevalence of sexual assault in Egypt, and to break the silence about the sexual violence women reporters are reluctant to report in case it prevents them from doing their jobs.[19]
She said the incident involved 200–300 men and lasted around 25 minutes. She had been reporting the celebrations for an hour without incident when her camera battery failed. One of the Egyptian CBS crew suggested they leave, telling her later he heard the crowd make inappropriate sexual comments about her. She felt hands touching her, and can be heard shouting “stop”, just as the camera died. One of the crowd shouted that she was an Israeli, a Jew, a claim that CBS said, though false, was a “match to gasoline”. She went on to say that they tore off her clothes and, in her words, raped her with their hands, while taking photographs with their cellphones. They began pulling her body in different directions, pulling her hair so hard she said it seemed they were trying to tear off chunks of her scalp. Believing she was dying, she was dragged along the square to where the crowd was stopped by a fence, alongside which a group of women were camping. One woman wearing a chador put her arms around Logan, and the others closed ranks around her, while some men who were with the women threw water at the crowd. A group of soldiers appeared, beat back the crowd with batons, and one of them threw Logan over his shoulder. She was flown back to the U.S. the next day, where she spent four days in the hospital.[19] She was contacted by President Obama when she arrived home.[20] CBS said it remained unclear who the attackers were, and unlikely that any will be prosecuted.
The other day, I was studying Talmudic tractate Kesubos36B1, which says: “Because he simply pressed and rubbed her between her breasts, did he disqualify her from enjoying the privileges of the priesthood?”
The Artscroll commentary says: “While Arabs [whom R. Dosa mentions because they are especially lascivious (Tosafos, citing Kiddushin 49b; see Hagahos Yavetz)] are depraved enough to fondle their female captives, they will stop short of actual violation.”
I suspect these rabbinic opinions are based on real life experiences with Arabs. I doubt these rabbis believe that every Arab is lascivious. They are talking about generalizations, which are the fount of wisdom aka the ability to see patterns.
Egyptians have an average IQ of 91, which means that on average, they are not as capable of empathy as peoples with an average IQ of 100 or higher.
Morality and conscience require the ability for abstract thought (ie, an IQ north of 90). The higher the IQ, for instance, the more clearly a person can recall the past and see into the future, to therefore have loyalty and gratitude, to use the subjunctive (if everyone does what I am about to do, the world will be a better or worse place), and see the benefits of cooperation. Lower IQ people, therefore, are less likely to have a developed conscience and deserve much closer minding.
An international study revealed that the Iraqi people ranked first in the list of the smartest Arabs, followed by Kuwait then Yemen while Saudi Arabia, Emirates and Morocco shared the same rank ie the 24th position worldwide.
The study published on goodnet.org ranked nations worldwide according to their citizens intelligence using the famous IQ (Intelligence Quotient) criteria which gives an intelligent person a quotient of 100. As this number increases the subject verges on genius while the famous scientist Albert Einstein enjoyed an IQ of 200.
The study based on the average intelligence of different people revealed that the Iraqis ranked first among Arab countries with an average IQ of 87 giving it the 21st rank worldwide.
Kuwait came second on the Arab level with an average IQ of 86 then Yemen with 85. The United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Saudi Arab and Morocco were closely ranked in the 23rd and 24th position worldwide and the 4th position in the Arab World with an IQ of 84 after Iraq, Kuwait and Yemen. Algeria, Bahrain, Libya, Oman, Syria and Tunisia came 5th in the Arab World with an average IQ of 83 giving them the 25th position internationally.
In spite of the reputation the Lebanese and Egyptians enjoy for being cultured and artistic and enjoy more pronounced political and social movements in comparison with other countries; the International IQ test put them in a relatively low rank. The Lebanese got 82 and the Egyptian 91 while the Qatari scored 78 and the Sudanese got 71; ranking last on the Arab level.
On the international level, Singapore ranked first with an IQ of 108 which clearly exceeded the international level while North Korea came second with 106, then Japan 105. The fourth rank was occupied by the first European country, Italy registering 102. Italy was followed by Island, Mongolia, Switzerland, Austria and China in which the average IQ is the standard 100.
There might not be a certain relationship between the Intelligence Quotient and the cultural and economic progress: Mongolia occupies the 9th position worldwide while the United States occupied a low rank recording 98 which is below the international standard. The US shared the same rank as Spain, France and Germany while the average intelligence in Britain is 100 ranking before Russia who got 97.
At a time when the Arabs did not belong to the group of the most brilliant but they still came is a relatively high rank. As for the countries that ranked in the lowest positions we mention Cameron, Gabon and Mozambique with a 64 average IQ while Guinea ranked last with 59.
