Sonia Farid: Tell me if you’re a virgin and I’ll tell you what you are

I have always been aware of the importance of virginity in Egypt—like other Arab and Muslim countries—and how tied it is with how chaste—read worthy of a respectable man’s attention—a girl is. Dozens of Egyptian movies depicted the dilemma of girls who lose their virginity and the endings ranged from the lover marrying the girl right before she slits her wrists or jumps off the stairs to get rid of the baby, thus “covering up the scandal” as the expression goes, to the other extreme when the girl’s brother or father decides to kill her and “wash off her disgrace,” also as the expression goes. However, it was quite strange to see virginity an issue in an American soap opera where the protagonists engaged in extramarital relationships and cheated on their wives/husbands all the time. Yet, the shocking bit was the way they made the rape of a virgin sound much more unforgivable than that of a non-virgin in an implication-bordering-on-statement that there is something pure about a virgin that cannot be desecrated and that whoever does so becomes more brutal than if the victim is “loose” or “has had previous relations” or “cares not for her honor” or whatever what this differentiation might bring to your mind.

This actually reminded me of something I read a while ago about how in many countries the way the woman was dressed when she got raped is taken into consideration when issuing a verdict against the rapist. So, basically a nun would gain much more sympathy if raped than a girl in a miniskirt simply because it was totally out of the first’s hand while the second more or less invited it. The same applies to a virgin who loses the “most precious” of her assets when raped as opposed to the non-virgin who has nothing to lose. To cut a long story short, a virgin is much worthy of respect and sympathy and support, apparently not only in our part of the world.

Regardless of the general fuss about virginity and how much time or effort societies and individuals give to estimate the value of a woman based on its presence/absence, it is not usually the issue you expect to come up in a country in which a despotic regime has been toppled and a new democratic one is struggling to see the light and specifically one that is not devoid of explosive sectarian tensions, critical security challenges, and endless political squabbles. Well… statements made by an army general about virginity tests conducted on detained female protestors proved that apparently there are more important issues that we had all overlooked since the start of the revolution and that it was now time to give them due attention owing to the role they will play in determining the future of Egypt: Are the protestors virgins or not? What if they are? And what if they are not? How exactly would this make a difference for Egypt or the army or the virgins/non-virgins? The general, who spoke on condition of anonymity even though he seemed to be heart and soul defending the action, did not really provide any answers to these questions. In fact, he did provide a couple of answers that were even more disastrous than the shocking revelation he made.

The women, arrested by the Military Police in a protest that took place on March 9, were not like “your daughter or mine,” said the general to the interviewer and we got to assume that both their daughters are decent ones while the detainees were not. On what basis did he issue this judgment? Good question! And the general is never at loss when it comes to answers. Those women engaged in profane activities in which the two other girls—the daughters—cannot be associated: they stayed in tents with male protestors. So does this mean that if they are not virgins then it is because of this? Or because they are not virgins they did that? No, the answer is different. The general and his fellow chastity inquisitors wanted to make sure that those women wouldn’t go around saying that they were raped by army officers and that they got in pure and got out sullied. “So, we wanted to prove that they were not virgins in the first place,” goes the argument. One more question before I go mad: Does a woman who loses her virginity become immune to all kinds of sexual assault? Let me rephrase that: Does the fact that she is not a virgin automatically rule out the possibility that she might still have been harassed? One last try: Is a non-virgin not subject to rape?

Then the enigmatic general ended his pearls of wisdom with the declaration that all the examined women were not virgins anyway. This looked like his way of absolving himself and his men of any blame through proving that they were right about those women who camp with men overnight. It was also as if he was saying that they are not worth the commotion made around them by activists and human rights groups and as if he assumed that as long as a woman is not a virgin she wouldn’t be hurt by such a brutal procedure and wouldn’t feel the slightest bit of humiliation at having her clothes taken off by force and standing stark naked in front of a group of spectators as the hands of one of them find their way into her body. That is why he owes them no apology, which of course would not have been the case had the state of the girls or a few of them turned out to be contrary to their expectations. I’m glad the girls were as “unclean” as he guessed they would be because otherwise the pangs of conscience he would have suffered would have been intolerable.

In making such sorry statements, I believe the general has put himself in a situation where he is compared to that pro-Mubarak Egyptian actor who said in a TV interview that the sit-in of Tahrir Square is only about male and female protestors having sex and doing drugs. The spat of indignation this actor stirred is not at all different from the reaction elicited by the general’s shameful confessions with the exception that the general is in a much worse situation since he is part of the army, which is credited for refusing to crush the protests and for choosing to side with the revolutionaries and which is currently in charge of the country. Egyptians have decided to boycott all the actor’s movies, but how can they take a similar action with the army?

The general also seems to come from the same school as Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh who said that the pro-democracy protests his country is witnessing are against Islamic principles because men and women “march” together as they call for the fall of the regime. Of course, the wise general can argue that marching is not like “tenting,” and I wouldn’t be surprised if he does that tomorrow. After all, a twisted logic has logic of its own!

The Supreme Council of Armed Forces denied “allegations” on virginity tests when the issue was first raised by Amnesty International and still denies after the general made his astounding remarks, but the testimony of the girls, who were also beaten, tied up, and called “prostitutes,” remains the most credible story for the public that has for quite a while been trying to overlook violations made by the army. For the majority of Egyptian activists, the virginity tests story is in line with the violent clampdown on several peaceful protests calling for speeding up reforms and the trial of civilians in military courts.

All have the same message: our patience is wearing thin so stay at home and let us do our work. If this is the case, then let me tell you that they couldn’t have chosen a worse and more humiliating way of saying it.