Saturday, December 17, 2011

‫A picture of a female Egyptian protester who was stripped from her black abaya and abused by army men has met with angry tweets criticizing the country’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces

Image of Egyptian army men stripping, kicking veiled female protester creates social media buzz


Social media users widely criticized and circulated a picture of a female Egyptian protester who was stripped from her black abaya by some army men. (Photo courtesy of twitter users)
Social media users widely criticized and circulated a picture of a female Egyptian protester who was stripped from her black abaya by some army men. (Photo courtesy of twitter users)



By Dina al-Shibeeb
Al Arabiya
A picture of a female Egyptian protester who was stripped from her black abaya and allegedly abused by army men has met with angry tweets criticizing the country’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) on Saturday.

The photos on social media shows a woman, clothed in just her denim pants, as army men hurl kicks only then to leave the lady unconscious lying on the street.

“SCAF’s soldiers: hooligans and sexual molesters. Picture shows them stripping, kicking young woman,” read one tweet.
The Egyptian Scientific Institute on fire.  (File Photo)
The Egyptian Scientific Institute on fire. (File Photo)
(Al Arabiya could not independently verify the authenticity of the images circulating on social media sites.)

Another tweet reported a “series of photos showing SCAF soldiers beating a young woman (in abaya & hijab) and stripping off her clothes.”

Another bold tweet criticized the military over the “death of a sheikh, a Christian, a child, veiled woman stripped to underwear. Shame on you.”

Protesters wary of the Egyptian army handling the transition of power clashed with SCAF for the second day in Cairo. Activists accused the army for breaking up peaceful sit-ins by opening fire on them.

Health Minister Fouad el-Nawawy told Egyptian television 10 people were killed and 441 injured. Most those appeared to have died on Friday or in the early hours of Saturday. State media said at least 200 people were taken to hospital.

“Calling upon all Egyptians in London. Protest to condemn SCAF’s brutality against civilians tomorrow at the Egyptian Embassy,” one Twitter user said.

Another picture that was brought to Twitter users’ attention was of plumes of fire billowing out of the Egyptian Scientific Institute’s building. The institute which houses archives and historic documents dating back to more than two centuries was destroyed.

“Fire gutting the historic Egyptian Scientific Institute. 200,000 books dating back to 1798 are gone," said on concerned tweet.

Another Twitter user said: “Many of those books were saved. Protesters risked molotovs etc to grab and then handed them over to an apparently cool headed officer.”




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