Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians gather at Tahrir Square to celebrate the one year anniversary of the uprising that led to the topple of President Hosni Mubarak.
(Click Image To Enlarge) Source
Thousands of women massed in Tahrir Square here on Tuesday afternoon and marched to a journalists’ syndicate and back in a demonstration that grew by the minute into an extraordinary expression of anger at the treatment of women by the military police as they protested against continued military rule.
Many held posters of the most sensational image of violence over the last weekend: a group of soldiers pulling the abaya off a prone woman to reveal her blue bra as one raises a boot to kick her. The picture, circulated around the world, has become a rallying point for activists opposed to military rule, though cameras also captured soldiers pulling the clothes off other women.
The march, guarded by a cordon of male protesters, was a surprising turn. In Egypt, as in other countries swept by the revolts of the Arab Spring, women played important roles, raising hopes that broader social and political rights would emerge along with more accountable governments. But with the main popular focus on preparing for elections and protesting the military’s continued hold on power, women here had grown less politically visible.
The women’s protest came on the fifth day of violent clashes between Egyptian soldiers and protesters. The severity of the military’s defense of its hold on power, even as the newly elected Parliament begins to take shape, has restored a degree of unity that had been missing among the civilian political factions, liberal and Islamist, since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February.
(Photo: Asmaa Waguih / Reuters via the New York Times)
**Daily Update**
Egypt Braces For Fresh Clashes After Protester’s Death
The killing of an unarmed demonstrator by the police on Saturday threatened to stir up new protests here as Egypt’s military rulers and political parties braced for potential chaos surrounding the parliamentary elections scheduled to start on Monday.
An outpouring of anger over the episode, in which a protester was run over by a police truck, added to fears that continued protests and violence would undermine the integrity of the vote, the first since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak nine months ago.
The death recalled the event that set off the recent uprising, when the heavy-handed eviction of a small protest camp in Tahrir Square galvanized public anger against the military’s power grab.
That eviction set off five days of clashes with the security police that left more than 40 dead and 2,000 injured, and it drew hundreds of thousands back to the square in recreations of the two-week sit-in that ousted Mr. Mubarak in February.
Although it was widely reported here on Friday that a contingent of demonstrators had moved to the cabinet building from the sit-in in Tahrir Square, the police in the trucks were surprised to see them, the Interior Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. In the confusion, the police fired tear gas into the crowd and ran over one of the demonstrators, Ahmed Sayed El Soroor, 19, killing him.
By midday Saturday, outraged protesters were talking about carrying the 19-year-old’s coffin to Tahrir Square for a public funeral.
“I wish youth in Tahrir wouldn’t leave the square before their demands are met because I see Ahmed, my son, in all of them,” his mother, Zeinab Ali Abdel Salam, told the state newspaper, Al Ahram.
*Update from Egypt* - Nerve Gas Used On Protesters
A banned chemical agent has reportedly been used by the Egyptian military as the brutal crackdown against tens of thousands of protesters has overshadowed prospects of a democratic transfer in the country.
Rashes, epileptic-type convulsions, temporary blindness and coughing up blood are among the symptoms being reported by Egyptian protesters who have fallen victim to a potentially lethal form of neuro-toxic nerve gas reportedly being deployed by security forces.
After almost a week of protests against the ruling military junta left some 41 people dead, several sources claim scores have died from gas asphyxiation, while thousands more have received medical treatment after possibly being exposed to an agent known as CR gas.
CR gas, which is up to 10 times more powerful than tear gas which is commonly used today, is no longer used by the United States due to its carcinogenic properties. The US military has categorized it as a combat-class chemical agent.
(Source)
This should be taken very seriously. Nerve Gas is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the UN. Nerve Gas can lead to death by asphyxiation as control is lost over respiratory muscles. The deadly gas is banned in most countries INCLUDING EGYPT.
(Credit)
At least 37 people have been killed in five days of protest and clashes with Egyptian security forces. Thousands more have been injured. Some protesters are reporting use of live ammunition by Egyptian military. The clashes are the longest spate of uninterrupted violence since the 18-day uprising that toppled the former regime in February.
*Update from Egypt*
Trigger Warning: Mild violence
Military police poured into Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Wednesday in hopes of stopping clashes between protesters and police, as the Egyptian government said a true has been declared through a group of clerics.
The true lasted about three hours.
(Source)
