Reading about the "brutal and sustained" sexual assault and battery of CBS News correspondent Lara Logan sickened me and pissed me off. It would have been bad if this were an extension of the first eruption of anti-media violence in Egypt a couple weeks ago during the 18-day nationwide protests. But once I learned that this act of evil happened mere minutes after the announcement that Hosni Mubarak would immediately step down as president of Egypt makes me searingly mad.
I posted such thoughts after a facebook friend linked the story on Ms. Logan's assault. One of the replies from one of the people my friend knows was basically, "Hmmm, defining an entire race of people just by one incident. Interesting." Slightly condescending sarcasm aside, it was a knee-jerk reaction. But my repulsion remains.
This should not be played off as a, "Well, shit happens" kind of thing. No, it shouldn't. This is rape, pure and simple. And I certainly will not accept an excuse of, "This is the price you pay for democracy." No! No woman needs to be subjected to this under any government, dictatorial or free. (Mind you, I am not saying that the poster who responded so curtly to my comment believes those things.)
I do not have all the details, but I have the freedom to speculate. And I doubt that there was a government conspiracy to attack Logan as part of a propoganda war. Why would Mubarak or one of his henchmen give the go-ahead for such a thing if he's about to leave office?
A possible suspect and motive: This interview Logan gave Esquire a few days before the assault, where she exposes the Egyptian Army as not the benevolent angels of freedom and democracy the country's people make them out to be. The overthrow of Mubarak was fueled by Twitter; it's very reasonable to believe that someone from the Army who regularly uses the Internet came across this and ordered a hit on Logan.
But the most likely scenario, and the ugliest: the mob mentality. Let's face it -- Logan is a) a journalist; b) from the West; c) who's very high-profile; d) a woman; and e) attractive. She was in the middle of the Tahrir Square reporting when the entire crowd erupted into jubilation. Logan and her team were outmanned. Looking back at it, the ingredients were there to spark this horrific act.
What I'm still wrestling with, even though it's not important at the end of it all, is whether this was premeditiated or not. It's bad enough to think that after the guys in the square heard the announcement that Mubarak was leaving that they would celebrate by gang-raping a beautiful reporter. But I can also believe that there was some premeditation, whether it was organized on Twitter or agreed upon at the scene by a bunch of sexual predators, that if and when the hot white chick is going to be back at Tahrir, if they have the opportunity, they'll try and fuck her. It's disgusting how the male mind works. It's disgusting how the human mind works.
No, this shouldn't take back everything that's happened to Egypt. But when I hear this, I really don't give a flying shit about reason. Emotions matter. Feelings matter. Bringing justice to an innocent victim of rape matters. At the very least, the very least, this act of inexcusable violence in the middle of a situation that should have brought forth nothing but joy is a buzzkill. And if the truth comes out about who did this and why, I have no problem taking a potshot at the Egyptian people who have brought about their own revolution with insults like the one I actually posted on facebook: "A part of me wishes the country would be back under Mubarak's control."
I know brutal violence on women probably happened before the overthrow. But I had such good feelings for this country. And to immediately perpetrate and/or allow this violence, and to an extraordinary, hard-working, tough-as-nails woman who has the balls to follow the calling of journalism in a way I realized I didn't have once I got my degree, makes me sick and has me demanding revenge.
I hope Ms. Logan is able to recover from this. I'm pretty sure she will. I don't think she'll let the bastards who did this to her change how she works and how brave she will be casting light in the dark places of the world. But ... how do you move on? How do you not let them break you? I wish I knew.
No comments:
Post a Comment