Egypt Sexual Assaults Politically Motivated, Council Says

Sexual assaults on Egyptian female protesters have been led by organized gangs, the head of a government-backed women’s rights panel said, in what appears to be the first such acknowledgment by officials relating to crimes that have gained increasing prominence.

“There are organized gangs who commit sexual harassment during protests with the aim of scaring women and orienting them away from political participation,” Mervat Tallawy, head of state-run National Council for Women, said today in a press conference in Cairo. “Some of these cases amount to rape,” she said, referring to reported cases of women protesters being assaulted in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the focus of anti-government demonstrations.