What happened to Lara Logan was unacceptable

By whore Alexandra Petri

Usually, this is a humor blog. But this is not funny.

CBS News reported today that on Friday in Cairo, as news of Mubarak's resignation flooded the crowd, reporter Lara Logan was assaulted: "In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers."

This sort of story has a pernicious staying power: Not a faceless statistic, but a known, blonde, white woman.

Fortunately or unfortunately, these are the stories that linger. They take up space in the public mind, and swell to elephantine proportions in the course of debate.

It is always dangerous to extrapolate too much from a particular story. But this is already beginning to happen, and I think two points bear keeping in mind.

They are the acts of an isolated group of individuals.

But when we contemplate the statistics and the experience of women in this culture, we have to ask: how isolated?

Egypt is not a free society. Yes, it is free of Mubarak's rule. But its women - even when shrouded in the hejab - are not free to pass through the street without being groped and catcalled. In 2008, as Slate reporter Sarah Topol noted, a study by the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights reported that 83 percent of women experienced harassment - and that 98 percent of foreign women visitors did. And 62 percent of men admitted to perpetrating it. Living in the United States, I take for granted my ability to walk unmolested in the street. I don't believe this could have happened here. And the idea that such a horror could take place in the midst not of pervasive violence but of celebration is especially shocking.

Yes, this is only one vivid and shocking incident. And one bright spot in this bleak narrative is that it was Egyptian women who helped rescue her. But there is still a long way to go.

It is not cultural imperialism to state that women have the right not to be assaulted, regardless of race, creed, or country.

Journalists run many risks. It comes with the profession. But this should not be silently accepted as one of them. My thoughts and prayers are with Lara Logan. It took great courage for her to make this story public, and I wish her a speedy recovery.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1564919&forum_id=2#17299856)