A small story of life in Egypt, from the Rebel With A Cause blog:

A young boy, Kareem (16 years old), was walking by in downtown area, Cairo. He was followed by four guys who were shouting insults to the young boy calling him a faggot. The boy just ignored their insults and kept going, the thing that seemed to provoke them, so they chased him until they caught him and started slapping and beating him violently (they were older and much stronger). It's not very clear why they decided to be that violent and abusive; although it seems to be basically driven by homophobia as Kareem's appearance looked “different”. Kareem screamed and ran towards police informers nearby but they didn’t bother to help the boy.

Appalled by what they saw, a group of friends sitting at a downtown café decided to intervene and help Kareem from the brutal attack. The one who stepped in first, Mohamed, was met by violence and he was slapped and hit too. He was told by the perpetrators “Why do you want to help him? Are you a faggot too?”

Since the fight started to involve more people, the police finally started to take action and step in. They automatically took the side of the perpetrators because the victim seemed to be a homosexual. They wanted to take Kareem and Mohamed (who only wanted to help) to the police station. The police seemed reluctant to arrest the perpetrators, but finally decided to take the main perpetrator for investigations.

What followed was even worse. The police tortured Kareem and decided to perform a rectal examination to determine if he was a homosexual! This was done using violence and in front of the perpetrator! Mohamed was met by sarcasm and ridicule. Police informers harassed him. The only thing that might have saved Mohamed from further humiliation was that he had an American passport.

Finally, the police decided that the rectal exam didn’t prove Kareem to be a homosexual! (This kind of exam is based on old and false medical knowledge). Then, the police suggested a reconciliation deal with the perpetrator. Desperate to leave and end the awful experience, both Mohamed and Kareem agreed so they can get out of the terrifying police station. A police report was issued and it had a completely different story from what happened.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 5 October 2010.