Cairo — In the crowd, a group of men surround a woman. They close in on her, with hands groping every inch of her body, stripping her of her clothes and raping her with their fingers. The unstoppable frenzy of invading hands intensifies as the mob grows in size.

Similar accounts of group assaults during major demonstrations and clashes have been on the rise. It’s nothing new to Egypt, but seems now to be centralized in and around Tahrir Square, at least in reported cases over the past 21 months. The tactic has been employed by the state against female activists starting in May 2005. Some classify it as a strictly social phenomenon when it takes place during holiday celebrations, an occurence that has been reported regularly since 2006.

The end result is the same, though: The iconic square is increasingly viewed as unsafe for women.  

It’s a form of punishment for revolutionaries, according to Dalia Abdel Hameed, gender and women’s rights officer at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR). She said, “The easiest way to punish women in this country is through sexuality. In a culture that blames the victim, women start to believe that they shouldn’t go to the square.”