Cairo Is No Place for a Woman

Yet another horrendous sexual attack on a Western woman by a crazed crowd in Cairo. I love Cairo, I've brought my children to Cairo in calmer times, and I'm generally speaking not the type to order my children not to do something they have good reason to want to do. But I swear, if one of my daughters ever says she's off to visit Egypt, I'll lay myself down in front the plane. Here's the latest horror story, from a very brave young woman:

Just as I realised I had reached the end of the bridge, I noticed the crowd became thicker, and decided immediately to turn around to avoid Tahrir Square. My friends and I tried to leave. I tried to put my camera back in my rucksack.

But in a split second, everything changed. Men had been groping me for a while, but suddenly, something shifted. I found myself being dragged from my male friend, groped all over, with increasing force and aggression. I screamed. I could see what was happening and I saw that I was powerless to stop it. I couldn't believe I had got into this situation.

My friend did everything he could to hold onto me. But hundreds of men were dragging me away, kicking and screaming. I was pushed onto a small platform as the crowd surged, where I was hunched over, determined to protect my camera. But it was no use. My camera was snatched from my grasp. My rucksack was torn from my back - it was so crowded that I didn't even feel it. The mob stumbled off the platform - I twisted my ankle.

Men began to rip off my clothes. I was stripped naked. Their insatiable appetite to hurt me heightened. These men, hundreds of them, had turned from humans to animals.

Hundreds of men pulled my limbs apart and threw me around. They were scratching and clenching my breasts and forcing their fingers inside me in every possible way. So many men. All I could see was leering faces, more and more faces sneering and jeering as I was tossed around like fresh meat among starving lions.

I shouted "salam! Salam! Allah! Allah!". In my desperate state I also shouted "ma'is salaama!" which actually means "goodbye" - just about the worst possible thing to say to a horde of men trying to ruin me. I might as well have yelled "goodbye cruel world! Down I go!"

A small minority of men, just a couple at first, tried to protect me and guide me to a tent. The tent was crushed, its contents scattered into shards all over the ground. I was barefoot as they stole my nice new shoes. I was tossed around once more, being violated every second. I was dragged naked across the dirty ground. Men pulled my blonde hair - a beacon of my alien identity.