First it was Lara Logan. Then other female journalists:
The press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders on Friday cautioned news outlets on sending female reporters to Cairo’s Tahrir Square, citing three incidents in which reporters have been assaulted.
“It is more dangerous for a woman than a man to cover the demonstrations in Tahrir Square. That is the reality and the media must face it. It is the first time that there have been repeated sexual assaults against women reporters in the same place. The media must keep this in mind when sending staff there and must take special safety measures,” Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.
Now a French female journalist has been attacked in Tahrir Square. In public. During protests for freedom:
Protest-riven Tahrir Square is becoming a savage minefield for women, as French and American female journalists are brutally beaten and raped, and Egypt’s ‘naked blogger’ mobbed. The latest victim is journalist for channel France 3 Caroline Sinz.
Sinz and her cameraman were attacked in the square on Thursday. She says several youths and men tore off her clothes and beat her, humiliating her in a way that she claims could be considered rape. After almost an hour, other Egyptians came to her rescue.
On the same day, US-Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy, an author for The Guardian and the Toronto Star, announced she had suffered brutal sexual and physical assault. She was arrested in Tahrir by Egyptian riot police and says that during the 12 hours she spent in Cairo’s Interior Ministry, she had bones broken in both wrists by security officials, who also grabbed her breasts and genitals.
RT’s own correspondent Paula Slier is reporting from Cairo, and she notes in her Twitter that she is “not feeling safe walking around Tahrir”.
Of course, it’s not just women. A man mistaken to be a Jew is just as vulnerable.
It’s the very ugly underbelly of the Arab Spring, one with which our media refuses to come to grips:
There is no single racial, ethnic, religious or political group which uniquely owns such infamy.
But we also cannot ignore that while it could happen anywhere, it did happen in Tahrir Square at a moment of national celebration in the open and in a public place, directed at someone who must have been viewed as a symbol of the West.
This is a fact those who glamorize the “Arab Street” have yet to deal with.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
I’m sure Bill Maher will have something clever to say about this.
The woman that are going there now are idiotic. How do female journalists after what happened to Lara Logan just show up there and then become shocked about what happens? Sorry, I don’t have sympathy for them! You play with fire and you’re going to get burned.
Political correctness invites idiocy!
These are people determined to live in the 12th century. They do not take kindly to us forcing our 21st century values upon them.
Let’s not assume too quickly that this is highly selective violence directed at specific genders or ethnicities. It’s not just women or “jewish-looking” (whatever jewish-looking means!) people. It’s anybody who would report on the situation in Tahir. Below is a link to an item on Guillem Valle, a Spanish (male, probably non-jewish) photographer beaten up and robbed while documenting the demonstrations. Apparently he’s a freelancer for the WSJ.
http://www.anhourago.eu/show.aspx?l=41231064&d=504
Of course, in this case it seems that the attack originated with the Egyptian police/military. Does this fact make a difference?
I’m always amazed that more journalists aren’t killed in these sorts of illegal insurrections, as they are really messy affairs. Once you throw out all respect for your government, manners are the last thing on your mind.
You only get a more civilized people when you give them a moral guidance that keeps them from indulging their more base reactions.
We see this here at home. You have the Tea Parties with their unbroken record of no violence, no rape, no riot, and usually leaving less trash in their meeting venues than rested there before the meeting. Contrast that to those with no moral guidance. The Occupiers. Repeated violence. Repeated rapes. Repeated riots. Every single venue a filth hole.
The Occupiers see actions of their fellow travelers and put up notes “We are better than this.” Problem is, no, you aren’t. The violence, vandalism, filth and hate is all they are. Someone acts up at a Tea Party and he’ll quickly find out that even unarmed Tea Party People are not willing to let you get away with being a jerk. We haven’t seen that happen because the Tea Party people really are better than that.
Do I think Egypt deserved Mubarak? No, no one deserves a tyrant. But I do think they lack the sort of moral center that would tell them that THEY ARE BETTER THAN THIS.
If Islam really taught them that they were better than this then why are they constantly attacking and persecuting the Coptic Egyptians? Just as oppressed by the ruling tyrant, but also victims of bullies who wave Korans.
By their works you shall know them. It’s a wisdom that transcends any religion.
So I am guessing that the first news origination that refuses to send a female reporter to one of these hot spots will get sued for discrimination because they are preventing that female from gaining the experience necessary for career advancement.
I’ll bet you these guys support OWS also:
“Cairo Rally: One Day We’ll Kill All Jews.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4153207,00.html
Exposing themselves to these brutal attacks is just another transparent acknowledgement by the Western media that they would rather believe ideological fantasy than obvious reality.
Finally, a newscaster with balls. Problem:she is Russian. But still …
I’ll bet those Egyptians wouldn’t bother her.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/25/russian-newscaster-pulled-from-tv-after-middle-finger-during-obama-story/
The Arab Spring in Egypt has this form of criminal behavior in common with the Occupests at the various Obamavilles.
Erecting a “Rape Free” tent at OWS tells us a great deal.
Given Islam’s historical treatment of women and minority religions, why is anyone surprised? Doesn’t anyone remember “The Scorpion and the Frog”?
Reporters Without Borders might more appropriately be called Reporters Without Brains since they choose not to believe what we in the Counter Jihad truthfully report on the nature of Islam and its muslim adherents.
So the old adage now rings true for them: Life’s a tough teacher. It gives the test first, then the lesson.
Many of us learned some lessons on Islam on 09/11/01. Most leftists saw the same things we saw, but claimed to themselves, “That couldn’t be the real Islam.”
Whistle by the graveyard all you want, lefties, but Islam has been teaching that for 1400 years and muslims have been following to the letter Islam’s core documents.
Well spoke, Gayle Spencer. I like that: “Life’s a tough teacher. It gives the test first, then the lesson.” and “Reporters Without Brains”.
Years ago I lived in Kelantan, Malaysia, a region about 95% Muslim. Should a single woman venture out on her own and get raped, it was here fault. See, men are evil. You know that, I know that, everybody who needs to know knows that. If a single woman, who knows that, goes out alone and is raped by a pack of men, then she was only getting what she was asking for, because men are evil. We all know that. It’s not the man’s fault that the woman presented herself. Duh.
Frequently in the Malaysia Strait Times we would read about a 49-year-old neighbor man raping and impregnating the next door 14-year-old girl. He would then marry her to make everything right.
So tell me, why do liberal women think so highly of Islam? Do they know what is involved in female genital mutilation? Or do they think it won’t happen to them?
“There is no single racial, ethnic, religious or political group which uniquely owns such infamy.”
Does anybody honestly think the Copts did this?
She’s French? She’ll find a way to blame the Jews. I’d bet she was wearing her Arafat-sympathy scarf.
[…] Professor Jacobson at Legalinsurrection writes, It could happen anywhere, but it keeps happening there. […]
Are any tourists going to Egypt? Why?