Egypt was one of the most important land parts of the Ottoman Empire and was occupied by England in 1882. Despite the Egyptian autonomy in 1922, security continued to be provided by British troops in the country. The British did not favor withdrawing from their positions which were important for their own future. After the occupation, they established military mechanisms and kept Egypt under indirect control.

With the "Impact of Free Officers" in 1952, Egypt began to be ruled by military personnel in a system in which military tutelage was seriously felt. The takeover of Hosni Mubarak in 1981, who was again a soldier, was the beginning of 30 years of oppressive rule that would end with popular uprisings. Mubarak's 30-year state of emergency and policies to oppress opponents and constantly violating human rights prepared the 2011 revolution process. On 30 June 2012, Mohammad Morsi was elected president for the first time in free elections. However, at the end of the first year of his rule, Morsi was taken into custody after being subjected to a military coup with foreign support by Chief of General Staff Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.

Massacre in Rabaa Square

The people who would lose all hope, perhaps, began a great resistance in Rabaa Square. The army demanded that all the squares be evacuated by sending notes to the public with the continuation of the protests on August 11. The people continued to oppose the coup. The Egyptian Army began attacking the people again on August 14. The tents of the protestors, the areas they lived in, the mobile hospitals they used were set on fire. The soldiers who declared a state of emergency first torpedoed and then burned them in order to extinguish the bodies of the people they had slaughtered. Thousands of people have lost their lives, even though the numbers are not exactly known in this resistance. Again in the events, 17-years-old Asma, the daughter of Muhammad Biltaci, one of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders, was assassinated by snipers.

"About 60 thousand opponent put into dungeons in the next period after the coup"

Impact and applications made by the putschist Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, has become to be called the Hosni Mubarak era. The coup regime continued to intimidate the Muslim Egyptian population by resorting to methods such as kidnapping, forced detention, arrest, torture after a series of massacres. In the next period of the coup, approximately 60 thousand opponents were put into the dungeons.

In the Egyptian dungeons, the members of the Muslim Brotherhood [Ihvan], especially those opposed to the military coup, were systematically tortured, being treated inhumanely, and many of the regime's opponents had lost their lives in prisons.

Not just the opponents of the coup, but dozens of journalists and human rights defenders were kept under terrible conditions in single-cell jail, and their detention period is continuously extended. For years, detentions have been subjected to beatings, malnutrition, humiliation and movement restriction.

The junta's administration, which seized power after the military coup in the country, continues to punish the people by ignoring the values and the law stated in all international contracts. The coup management did not hesitate to pass through the red line of society that no administration had ever dared to do, including the dictator Mubarak regime era, and since July 2013, they have tortured women.

"Egyptian women are subjected to beatings, harassment, abuse and physical assault"

After the coup d'état, the number of Muslim women arrested throughout Egypt is unknown. While junta forces arrest opponents of the coup, they put forward many rationales without discrimination between men or women. Women are sometimes executed in the middle of the street. This terrible situation before the eyes of the world is not limited to murder and custody. Many women are systematically subjected to beatings, harassment, abuse and physical assault by the coup forces.

From the beginning of December 2013, just a few days before the law banning the demonstrations, the junta forces, and the illegitimate Interior Ministry began to follow an ugly and aggressive approach towards women in Egypt. Since that day, violence has been applied to women as same as men, and all kinds of ruthless and inhuman treatment are displayed without respect for any law or rule.

"There are young girls in prison under 13-14 years old"

The girl students are the most targeted at these detainees. Among the detainees, there are young girls who are not over 13-14 years old. Some of them are still held in prisons with unreasonable charges that cannot be attributed to a child.

The junta management resorted to many methods to frighten women and break their will. Beatings, rape, sexual harassment, insults, psychological pressure and threats are at the head of the methods used to intimidate women. More violence is being applied to women who try to protect themselves.

"There is not enough food, water, bed and cleaning facilities available for detainees"

Junta forces continue to frighten and intimidate women by insulting and ugly words, leaving blood traces and torture tools from the old detainees on the walls of the cells they are kept in. The police, who are not satisfied with it, are forced to undress men against female detainees. They also beat the undressed in the front of women in order to frighten them.

Detained women are put into prisons after being arrested for simple reasons. Especially in the transfer to the prison, the junta staff inside the vehicle tear many women's headscarves and clothes and there are cases of sexual assault. Underage girls are being held in correctional homes. Women who are not decided on, are kept in custody of dirty cells in detention centers. Moreover, detainees are not provided with adequate food, water, bedding and cleaning facilities.

"The junta forces are forcing women for virginity test"

The junta forces, which do not settle for violence and torture, are making unprecedented practices anywhere in the world by conducting pregnancy tests and virginity checks on women they have detained and arrested. Complaints of the prisoners are being stopped by threats. Despite all kinds of threats, even those who complain, no results can be obtained from these cases.

Politically imprisoned women and young girls who are taken to the penitentiary and correctional homes are placed in the same wards together with common criminals in inhuman and degrading ways. Women who are subjected to all kinds of harassment and insults by other prisoners are forced to live in environments where there are drug-smokers and quarrels.

Prison administrations do not allow prisoners to use basic cleaning materials such as soap, shampoo, or basic living materials such as mattresses, pillows, or blankets. In addition, in most prisons where no infirmary or clinic is available, prisoners do not have access to the most basic health care or even medicines brought by their relatives.

All the violence and sexual assaults that women are subjected to in Egypt are aimed to intimidate, dominating and humiliating. While checking the accusations against women and the reasons for their arrest, all in contradiction to international legal norms and human rights treaties that Egypt is a party to. (ILKHA)