Yes. It's a very touching and touchy subject for me.
Tahrir Square has now become a place that is very unwelcoming to women protestors. I've heard this over and over again from human rights defenders. I actually spent most of 2011 in a tent in the square. I was one of those people who said that women needed to be there, even if it meant giving up a little time off work, because of the importance of having both genders engaging in this...and the lack of ability for us due to some community or societal restraints.
Now it has become a very ugly space. You have violence against women, including—and I apologize for the descriptor—vaginal penetration of women using knives, and the abduction of women. You have gangs pulling women aside saying “We'll protect you, we'll protect you, we'll protect you”, and then stuffing them into trunks. When I was in Tahrir late last year, I personally saw a group around a woman, who was then flung onto my tent. The tent collapsed and then the crowd trampled her and everyone else nearby, including trampling one of my friends.
The escalation from harassment to rape is quite alarming—and for almost all activists. It has now become a tool of political terrorism to stop women from engaging in these public spaces, and to limit the opposition, which includes a very strong base in the feminist community and women's activist groups, from engaging in politics. This has become really problematic, and the use of violence against us has created an environment where it has become very difficult for me, for example, to walk down from my work, which is three blocks from Tahrir, and cross the street to go to a friend's house, which is on the other side of Tahrir.