Egypt's court ends virginity tests on army prisoners
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Xinhua, December 28, 2011
An Egyptian court ruled on Tuesday the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to stop forced virginity tests on detained females either inside the barracks or in the military prisons, the state media reported.
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Egyptian women protest against the virginity tests on detained females on Dec. 27, 2011. |
The ruling, in which the court stated that forced virginity tests on detained female protesters violated the constitution and humiliated women's bodies and dignity, was issued after a female detainee, Samira Ibrahim, filed a lawsuit complaining of being forced to undergo a virginity test by an army doctor during her imprisonment.
An army member justified the virginity tests in June by saying that the tests were meant to protect the military from possible allegations of rape.
The military provisions stipulated that civilians have to be put in civilian prisons and no test or search should be applied on women, the court noted, adding that Egypt had signed many human rights agreements that forbid torture or aggressive treatment.
The military should not seek any law-violating act for the sake of avoiding possible allegations, the official news agency MENA quoted the court as saying.
In a quick response to the ruling, chief of the military court Adel Mursy said that the ruling could not be applied since the military did not order to enforce virginity tests and such tests should be individual acts that required investigation.
Mursy added that Ibrahim's case had been referred to the supreme military court.
After the ruling was issued, Ibrahim and other protestors celebrated the decision in the Tahrir square in downtown Cairo, the epicenter of the country's nation-wide protests that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak in February.
The army has been criticized recently for mistreating women after a video showed an army soldier dragged a woman by her hair, beat her and striped her in the street earlier this month during a clash in downtown Cairo.
The ruling military council has expressed "great regret" over the incident and promised to punish those responsible for attacking females.
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