A few days ago the BBC ran an article about Egyptian “virginity tests” (emphasis theirs).

Amnesty International, which first reported the checks in March, called the comments abusive and insulting.

The human rights group said 18 female protesters arrested after army officers cleared Tahrir Square on 9 March were detained, beaten and given electric shocks.

‘Perverse justification’
Of these, 17 were then subjected to strip searches, forced to submit to virginity tests and threatened with prostitution charges, Amnesty said.

At the time, the military – which has been running Egypt since Hosni Mubarak was toppled in February – denied the allegations.

But on Tuesday an unnamed general told CNN that tests were in fact carried out.

“The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine,” said the general. “These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters.”

He went on to defend the process.

“We didn’t want them to say we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove that they weren’t virgins in the first place,” he told the American network. “None of them were [virgins].” 

It shouldn’t be surprising that in a country under the same religion and culture that thinks that raping lesbians will turn them straight, would come up with this kind of perverse and illogical BS.

I’m sure their virginity test was an inspection of the hymen. This of course is a horribly inaccurate test as it can be ruptured through activities other than sex.

Examinations like this, with no medical justification are nothing short of sexual assault. It should go with out saying that you can’t sexually assault women to make it so that they can’t claim that you sexually assault them. Of course who are we talking about here?

The idea that you can only rape a virgin is absolutely bonkers. Based on this logic a married woman can’t be raped, regardless of who the man is. It would also seem that you could only be raped once, since after that you’re not a virgin and it’s not rape if you’re not a virgin.

So what if these women aren’t virgins? What difference should it make if they were staying in tents with men, even if they were having sex with them. It’s only prostitution if money or drugs are being exchanged for sex. Regardless of if they had grounds to arrest these women, they had absolutely no ground to assault them.

Egypt needs change, and fast. If this is the way the military is running things, then they need elections soon.

With this kind of a mindset in the Middle East, it’s no wonder that when I was on the dig in Jordan they encouraged the women to take a man with them when they went downtown. It’s amazing how many “sisters” I had.