The festive mood of the inauguration of Egypt's new president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, hit a violent note when reports of mob sexual assaults in Tahrir Square arose on Sunday. Buzzfeed said at least five women had fallen victim to the attacks.
Heba Mohamed, who works with a local group which documents attacks on women, "I Saw Sexual Harassment," told the viral news site, "Unfortunately we are now witnessing another wave of sexual harassment. We don't have accurate numbers to report but we can say many women, at least five we know about, were attacked by mobs last night."
Mohamed said that in at least three of the cases that happened on Sunday, the women remained in the hospital and were badly injured from the attacks. She added that the group was still collecting data about the attacks over the women, and has yet to know how many women were sexually attacked or harassed at Tahrir Square.
Local television stations in Egypt were said to be forced to report on the attacks when a video had surfaced online that detailed one brutal attack.
The video widely circulated on Sunday evening, showed a young woman naked and bloodied as she is attacked by a group of men. Buzzfeed said the men pushed and shoved the hapless woman into a circle of abusers. A police officer was shown in the video trying to help the woman, but failed to reach her in time several times. The police officer later was able to reach the woman with the help of others. The woman was found to be lying on the ground at that moment.
However, only a few had provided details in the attack, and were quick to blame the ostracized Muslim Brotherhood supporters, and said that the latter had done the attacks to ruin the happy occasion.
A news clip from the Tahrir Channel showed a woman correspondent speaking to news anchor Maha Bahnasy live from the square reporting "isolated cases of harassment," to which Bahnasy audibly laughed and commented that the boys might be "having a good time."
Last week, outgoing Egyptian President Adly Mansour had given his approval to a draft law that makes sexual harassment a criminal offense. Individuals convicted of such crime based on the draft law will face at least six months in jail or a fine. However, Buzzfeed said that given the events on Sunday, few in Tahrir believed that the draft law will have an effect on violence against women in the streets of Egypt.
