Protesters in Tahrir Square (Getty Images)
A 22-year-old Dutch reporter was gang-raped while a crowd surrounded her in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday as Egyptian protests gained momentum.
The media reports that she was interning with an Egyptian news organization and had gone to the landmark square to take pictures of the demonstrations. According to Egypt 25 news, the woman was attacked and raped by five men. Once she arrived at a hospital, the victim was forced to undergo surgery.
Referring to a statement by the Dutch embassy in Cairo, the Committee to Protect Journalist has said the woman has returned to Holland. The security official could not elaborate on condition of anonymity.
With police staying away from the square to avoid provoking confrontations with protesters, safety has been compromised. Women fear the rising tide of sexual assaults as Tahrir crowds grow. An anti-sexual-harassment vigilante group, which patrols the square, states that 46 group assaults were recorded Sunday in Tahrir, calling that the highest number it has encountered since the group formed in November 2012. “Many cases were severe cases that required either psychological or medical treatment,” one member of the group, Engy Ghozlan, told the AP.
Lara Logan, reporter who was raped in Tahrir Square during the arab spring 2 years ago.
This horrifying rape is reminiscent of the violence at Tahrir Square in 2011, when American journalist Lara Logan was sexually assaulted while covering Egypt’s revolution. “I was dying in that square,” Logan said during a 60 minutes interview. “I never thought I’d see my children again.”
As protests and violence percolate, an atmosphere of corrosive anxiety continues to grip the streets of Egypt over the uncertainty of the country’s future.
