U.S. Postpones Samira Ibrahim Award Over Anti-Semitic, Anti-American Tweets

The State Department made another major oopsy by not taking the time to vet Egyptian activist Samira Ibrahim before offering her the International Women of Courage Award. One would think they would have taken the time to vet an individual before bestowing upon them a prestigious award, but nope.

It turns out Samira, who sued the military-led government and won a ban against forced virginity tests after she was subjected to one after being arrested during the Tahrir Square protests in 2011, has posted anti-Semitic and anti-American comments on her Twitter account.

Regarding the Bulgarian terror attack that killed Israeli tourists on a bus:

“An explosion on a bus carrying Israelis in Burgas airport in Bulgaria on the Black Sea. Today is a very sweet day with a lot of very sweet news.”  

And then there's this:

Last August 4, commenting on demonstrations in Saudi Arabia, she described the ruling Al Saud family as “dirtier than the Jews.” Seventeen days later she tweeted in reference to Adolf Hitler: “I have discovered with the passage of days, that no act contrary to morality, no crime against society, takes place, except with the Jews having a hand in it. Hitler.”

Screen Capture with page translation

Ibrahim holds other repellent views as well. As a mob was attacking the United States embassy in Cairo on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, pulling down the American flag and raising the flag of Al Qaeda, Ibrahim wrote on twitter: “Today is the anniversary of 9/11. May every year come with America burning.” Possibly fearing the consequences of her tweet, she deleted it a couple of hours later, but not before a screen shot was saved by an Egyptian activist.

Michelle Obama and  Secretary of State John Kerry were to present the award until enough people started balking. So they've deferred, for the time being. According to the State Department's Victoria Nuland:

“We as a department became aware very late in the process about Samira Ibrahim’s alleged public comments." “After careful consideration, we’ve decided that we should defer presenting this award to Ms. Ibrahim this year so that we have a chance to look further into these statements.”

Mrs. Nuland added that Mrs. Ibrahim “has categorically denied” to the State Department that she wrote the unsavory messages and claimed that “she was hacked” by someone else who made the remarks on her behalf. “But we need some time and, in order to be prudent, to conduct our own review,” Mrs. Nuland said.

Of course Samira is denying it, and Nicole Gaoulette of Bloomberg says Department officials believe her.

“State officials tell me they’ve looked at 1000s of her tweets & believe her account was hacked."

So why are those offensive Tweets that were allegedly posted by hackers months ago still on her Twitter feed?  Had my Twitter account been hacked, you can rest assured that I would have removed every single hacked comment. The State Department is probably just trying to save face, hoping that with time all will be forgotten.

But look at Samira's tweet from yesterday March 8:

"Refused to apologize to the Zionist lobby in America on previous statements hostile to Zionism under pressure from the u.s. Government, the award was withdrawn."

I think that pretty much settles it.

Thanks to other Egyptian activists- who informed the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum about the true face of Samira who in turn contacted State- an embarrassing event was averted. For now.

Source: Fox News, Free Beacon, Weekly Standard

Egyptian Court Bans 'Forced Virginity Tests' Only In Miltary Prisons

Back in March, 2011, at the height of the 'Arab Spring' protests in Egypt, 18 female protesters who were arrested in Tahrir Square and then detained in a military prison, were allegedly tortured and forced to undergo ' virginity tests'. 

According to Amnesty International:

20-year-old Salwa Hosseini told Amnesty International that after she was arrested and taken to a military prison in Heikstep, she was made, with the other women, to take off all her clothes to be searched by a female prison guard, in a room with two open doors and a window. During the strip search, Salwa Hosseini said male soldiers were looking into the room and taking pictures of the naked women.  

The women were then subjected to ‘virginity tests’ in a different room by a man in a white coat. They were threatened that “those not found to be virgins” would be charged with prostitution. According to information received by Amnesty International, one woman who said she was a virgin but whose test supposedly proved otherwise was beaten and given electric shocks.

“Women and girls must be able to express their views on the future of Egypt and protest against the government without being detained, tortured, or subjected to profoundly degrading and discriminatory treatment,” said Amnesty International.

“The army officers tried to further humiliate the women by allowing men to watch and photograph what was happening, with the implicit threat that the women could be at further risk of harm if the photographs were made public.”

One of those detainees, Samira Ibrahim (25), filed suit against the military-led government and won.  Virginity tests are now verboten.

“The court orders that the execution of the procedure of virginity tests on girls inside military prisons be stopped,” said judge Aly Fekry, head of Cairo Administrative court. Hundreds of activists inside the courtroom cheered after the ruling was read out.

Note, this only applies to temporary detainees in military prisons, otherwise it's fair game, since virginity tests are cool in Islam. I suppose one can't expect too much change, even from a civilian court.