How I Nearly Got Thrown Into an Egyptian Prison

It would be an understatement to say that the Egyptian government doesn't take kindly to protests. Even the most peaceful demonstrations can be met with extreme brutality and arbitrary arrests, usually at the hands of police acting without the pesky restraint that comes with wearing a uniform.

The security forces treat foreigners with kid gloves so as to maintain Egypt's foreigner friendly facade, so we're generally pretty safe from all the fun and games.

I've seen a few protests in Cairo, and even been in one. They're a good insight into the boot-on-neck strategy that the Egyptian government (same one since 1978 and going strong) uses to keep itself in power. I never once felt like I was in danger, and I suppose I felt untouchable. The other day I got a reality check.

There was a demonstration set to happen outside a movie theatre on a busy street in downtown Cairo as part of a campaign for womens rights in Egypt. A couple of weeks before - during the holiday of Eid - this had been the gathering point for a mob of men before they roamed up and down the crowded street, sexually assaulting any women they could find. They did this 2 nights in a row, with pretty much no hindrance from police.

Through the efforts of the blogging community as well as a courageous reporter, the events were eventually brought to the attention of the international media.

For me, the whole thing brought into focus the fact that the State Security Forces exist purely to protect the government. When it came time to fulfil the role of protecting Egyptian citizens, the motivation just wasn't there - not just on the first extended rampage, but two nights in a row.

As I arrived at the cinema, this fact was beautifully illustrated. Both sides of the street were lined with the ubiquitous "thuggies". These are low-ranking plain-clothes police officers who function solely as accountability-free enforcers. When the beatings happen, it's usually a pretty safe bet that it's these guys - and boy do they seem to enjoy it. Naturally, the security forces can wipe their hands clean of any responsibility.

In a sad reflection of the carelessness and blatancy of this Egyptian institution, the thuggies make no effort to pass a s civilians beyond dressing in their poorly fitting plain clothes. They can sometimes be seen chatting with uniformed officers, but most of the time they just stand around in lines looking bored, waiting for the action to start.

Swanning around on the street in front of the cinema in their grand militaristic uniforms were a number of high-ranking officers. The funny thing about these guys is that in pretty much every aspect they dress well and project an illusion of professionalism, but just about all of them manage to undo it all with their sunglasses. Almost every top-brass officer I've seen (and that's a few - there's at least one at every protest) sports a pair of big black sunnies that just scream corruptibility.

All of this and not a single protestor. I couldn't help but wonder how differently things would have gone for the women assaulted during Eid if the security forces had mustered the same enthusiasm.

As I stopped in front of the cinema's entryway, I caught the eye of the officer who was clearly in charge of the scene. He stood in full dress regalia on the other side of the street directly opposite me, surrounded by an enclave of "undercover" officers. He looked like he was out for a military parade. He flashed me a glare and waved me on. Not to be deterred, I walked a short way up the street past parked vans filled with police, and turned around. As I came back towards the theatre, a movie caught my eye and I fronted up to the ticket booth. The ticket lady told me there was a showing in 40 minutes.

While I was standing at the ticket booth, the three friends who I'd arranged to meet showed up. We stood around in front of the cinema for a few moments before being waved on, and crossed the street to a nearby bakery for some ice cream (for some reason, the best ice cream in Cairo seems to come from bakeries and i never figure dout why). With everyboody happily licking their respective cones we stood in front of the bakery and watched - an awful lot of bored, conspicuous police, but still no protestors.

I spoke to a couple of Germans who had no idea what was going on, and were understandably confused as to why they were being continually hustled along by groups of burly men in suede jackets. I told them about the demonstration and noticed number one shooting more greasy looks at me. At this point I realised just how much I was making myself look like an instigator and I nervously broke off the conversation.

A group of plainclothes officers materialised around us and through a combination of getting into our personal space, gesturing and repeating the phrase "excuse me", made it clear to me and my three friends that we weren't welcome.

They followed us a few metres down the street as we moved away. When I stopped to say goodbye to my friends so I could go to the movie they pushed us onwards. After I pantomimed a movie camera and pointed at the cinema, and they let me pass.

I bought my ticket and headed into the theatre's foyer where I stood and watched the street through glass doors. After a while, number one's group crossed the street and went around the corner out of my sight. Ticket stub in hand, I came out of the theatre onto the footpath. Straight away I knew something was happening around the corner. All of the thuggies lined up outside the corner cafe were straining for a view through it, and when I tried to peer through a window they hustled me on.

I came around the corner and saw 2 people being dragged by a team of thuggies towards an armoured police van. One of them was a man in his early twenties, the other was a young woman wearing a blue headscarf. They struggled frantically in an ineffectual attempt to break free and were eventually thrown bodily inside the dark van. I heard them scream with all the desperate terror of innocent people who stand on the brink of an indeterminate stay in a dank cell, and see the very real threat of creative torture in their near future.

I decided that this was a good time to leave, and I started to head back towards the theatre, struggling to process what I'd just seen. Ruling out the possibility that the young woman in the blue headscarf had posed any physical threat to the legions of male police officers, I came to the conclusion that I had just witnessed my first arbitrary arrest, and it scared the hell out of me.

Before I'd gone more than a few metres, I heard an authoritative voice shout in my direction. I felt someone grab me from behind and spin me around. Right there in my face was number one with a couple of his officers, all of them shouting and spraying spittle in my face. They grabbed my arms and started pulling me towards the van. I felt like my stomach was turning itself inside out as the terror that I'd been so nicely removed from moments before became real for me.
"I'm just here to see a movie, aayiz ashuf movie" I said, brandishing my ticket stub. I'm proud to say that my voice was clear, despite the fact that I was closer to shitting myself than I'd been in 17 years or so.

Picture, if you will, me with one man attached to each of my arms. One of them is a burly plain-clothes officer, and the other is a sixty plus grey-haired higher-up policeman in what looks like an overdone, black Colonel Klink uniform. Now picture us in a tug-of-war. This was the scene until number one snatched my ticket stub from me and shouted "khalass" (That's the end of it) as he screwed it up.

At the time I thought it would be a good idea to demonstrate my determination to see the movie - partially to convince them that I wasn't a protest instigating enemy of the state, and partially because I wasn't about to let ten pounds (USD 1.75) worth of movie ticket slip through my fingers. So I snatched my movie ticket right back off the bossman police general who was about
to arrest me.

He took this surprisingly well, and at this point they all stopped pulling me. One of them grabbed my bag to search for a camera. I didn't have one, and if I had, I think something bad would have happened to it.

After the random camera search they decided to let me go. One of the officers decided that I needed some help getting home, so he pushed me down the street for 10 or 15 metres before returning to the scene of the arrests. I walked home in a daze, not sure why they let me go. Maybe it was because of the movie ticket, maybe they weren't going to arrest me in the first place, I guess I'll never know.

If I was Egyptian, I would be in a police cell right now. I won't be feeling untouchable any time soon.