151. The experience of another woman, Aida Seif el-Dawla,43 who was also at scene, supports the arguments of the Complainants about the genderspecific nature of the violations. Aida Seif el-Dawla alleges that when she was being assaulted, she tried to ask for help from the police officers, who instead hit her and retorted; “This is so that you stop coming to the areas belonging to men!”44 It is clear that the incidents alleged took place in a form of a systematic AC HP R 152. sexual violence targeted at the women participating or present in the scene of the demonstration. Furthermore, perpetrators of the assaults seemed to be aware of the context of the Egyptian society; an Arab Muslim society where a woman‟s virtue is measured by keeping herself physically and sexually unexposed except to her husband. The perpetrators were aware of the consequences of such acts on the Victims, both to themselves and their families, but still perpetrated the acts as a means of punishing and silencing them from expressing their political opinions. 153. In view of the fact that the Respondent State did not refute the allegations made by the Complainants in the framework of the actual acts of violence that were committed against the Victims, and also following the analysis of the statements from the Victims, the African Commission concurs with the Complainants that the type of violence used during the demonstrations was perpetrated based solely on the sex of the persons present in the scene of the demonstration. In other words, the violence was gender-specific and discriminatory by extension. 43 Dr Aida Seif el-Dawla is an Egyptian psychiatrist and a prominent human rights activist. 44 n 42 above, Statement of Aida Seif el-Dawla to Al-Nadeem Center. 43

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