Lara Logan assaulted in Egypt

Sadly, Lara Logan isn't/wasn't an isolated case.

Cairo has never been a place that was safe for women to be alone. Logan obviously had security with her, but it didn't help her.

This revolution has changed the way Egyptians are looking at their world. Women showed up at these protests. It was women who came to Logan's rescue. And, now, women are demanding their rights.

These are from the 13th from a young woman in Cairo who's Tweets I'm following:


@Sarahngb Sarahngb

This MUST be addressed IMMEDIATELY . Just heard another friend report being badly harassed/groped in Tahrir last night!

last night, may and her friend got surrounded by at least 100 guys who started groping them endlessly. Inside Tahrir sq!!!

they were completely surrounded! :/

Frankly I don't care about International Media for this one. Local Media has to focus on sexual harassment and support our calls against it!

I REFUSE to walk/drive in a single street in my country and worry about being groped or harassed again. ENOUGH

I am talking about it because it was always a major concern, and the optimistic of us thought it would end post jan25. It didn't!

and more than two of my friends reported bad cases of sexual harassment over the last couple of days!

ANY and perhaps EVERY girl is subject to sexual harassment. Veiled or not, 'attractive' or not!! I won't appreciate jokes on this subject.

no time to give. demands must be made. sexual harassment laws MUST be passed.

#betteregypt WITH NO SEXUAL HARASSMENT

I'm not a feminist nor do I believe this is about women's rights. It's about citizens feeling safe & being respected!

 

Protesters don't seem so innocent and peaceful now, do they?

 

A male journalist in that situation might very well have endured a lengthy beating as Logan did. But he would not have also endured rape, and all the horror that accompanies it, as she did. Knowing this, and knowing the perils of the world she was reporting from, I don't understand how one can take gender out of the debate as risk is weighed. Logan walked into that "celebration" a much larger target than her male counterparts.

This story just makes me sick to my stomach, but she is one extraordinarily brave human being.

 

Holy crap. I say we send this blogger to Cairo without a security detail.

 

There were a lot of people in that square -- including thugs.

But, look, I've never meant to sugar coat any off this.

I've been perhaps the biggest critic of Islam on this board. I am well aware of the problems it faces and chief among them is its treatment of women.

Women are all too often treated as property and their sexuality terrifies Arab/Muslim men.

So, you take 80 million people, mix in a heavy dose of Islam and top it with a police state, and you have a recipe for disaster.

But, a free & democratic North Africa/Middle East is the best chance that the women of the region have to be treated with respect.

That's the only way that new ideas will flourish and old traditions will end.

 

Read this woman's bio on her blog. She's quite impressed with herself. Meanwhiile, I'd never heard of her until this story.

 

I had never heard of her before either until i read this post, which i found linked via twitter. Suffice it to say, i will never read her again, either.

 

Take 100 IQ points away from Ann Coulter and you have Schlussel. A few years ago she got into a fight with Hannity over his charity. Glenn Beck would think she's a bit much.

The discussion of Logan's safety, and that of all journalists, makes me think of The Killing Fields, which I just watched again recently. When Dith is being taken away, another reporter yells at Schanberg for not letting Pran leave with his family. And part of Schanberg did want him to stay, he didn't tell him he had to, but he did need him to do the best job he could do for the Times. But Pran, crying, defends Schanberg, says he's a reporter too and I've read other things where he did want to stay, despite the risks. And those risks turned into reality when he became a prisoner of the Khmer Rouge. Looking back, he would have surely left with his family. But when he had to make the decision, he stayed. Because that's what reporters did.

Logan was doing her job. These risks can have horrific results, whether it's Logan or Daniel Pearl. We trust journalists to know the risks, to weigh them and to decide how to proceed. Tragedies like this will happen again. And journalists will keep going back, whether it's the wisest thing to do or not.

Thought Jones had a good take on it.

http://sonofboldventure.blogspot.com/2011/02/lara-logans-math.html

 

One day before the attack, Esquire interviewed her as she boarded the flight to Cairo.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/lara-logan-egypt-assault-5241788
On traveling with private security: "No. We are not. It's been so chaotic. I think we do have a security person on with us now, on our team, but I haven't had a chance to even address that."

On her threshold for danger this time: "Last time we had to leave because the problem we had was that they had photographed us, they were tracking us, they said they would find us wherever we went and we had no paperwork. This time, we are going in to interview the head of the ruling party, these people have said they will do their utmost to assist us and to protect us. The'’re not giving any guarantees, but definitely that helps, since the current regime is still in power. [As long as] the ruling party is still the ruling power, then that stands for something. If that's no longer the case by the time we land, if they’re out, then it’s not an issue anymore. We're not pretending to be tourists and we’re not saying we’re not journalists, that we’re not saying we're not there to cover the protests. It’s very obvious why we’re there, and we can say we know the Egyptian government knows why we’re there, and we can say we have names and numbers we can give them of people they can call."

 

Akin to Dickless Cheney saying, "They volunteered."

 

It's going to be a great day when this monkey gets hers.

 

@Sandmonkey Mahmoud Salem

Lara Logan, what happened to you was reprehensible, & I hope u don't judge the egyptian people or Tahrir because of it.

The Truth is, sexual harassment of women has been an issue we are batteling for years, & we are still working on it.

I always advocated making sexual harassment a criminal charge punishable by prison & for the vice police to focus on enforcing that.

This is one of the main issues that we will need to work on in future Egypt: End FGM (female genital mutilation), Sexual harassment & gender discrimination.

Restatement: I meant Sexual assault of all kinds : sexual harassment and Rape. There can be zero tolerance re either.

Holy crap, I just read a more dteailed account on what happened to Lara Logan. THIS IS AN OUTRAGE & CAN NOT BE TOLERATED FOR ANYONE.

Dear Lara, what happened to you was horrible, & we are all ashamed by it.I really hope u don't judge the revolution & those in Tahrir by it.