Global Feminist Daily News Wire
December-22-11

Women March Against Police Brutality in Egypt

On Tuesday, thousands of women gathered in Cairo as part of the "Million Women March" to protest police brutality towards female protestors. The march follows a widely broadcasted incident last weekend in which security forces brutally beat, kicked, and dragged a woman protestor. According to the New York Times, "Historians called the event the biggest women's demonstration in modern Egyptian history, the most significant since a 1919 march against British colonialism inaugurated women's activism here, and a rarity in the Arab world."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke out against the violent treatment of protestors in a speech at Georgetown University: "women are being beaten and humiliated in the same streets where they risked their lives for the revolution only a few short months ago. Women protesters have been rounded up and subjected to horrific abuse. Journalists have been sexually assaulted. And now, women are being attacked, stripped, and beaten in the streets. This systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonors the revolution, disgraces the state and its uniform and is not worthy of a great people."

According to the Huffington Post, more than 14 people have died and over 300 people have been wounded during the clash between protestors and police forces and Tahrir Square which began Friday.

Media Resources: Anushay's Point 12/20/11; Huffington Post 12/20/11; Reuters 12/20/11; CNN 12/20/11

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