Egypt jails 21 women, including 15 year old, for 11 years

[Irbis]

Egypt jails women protesters for 11 years

Egypt dismayed as 21 women are given 11-year prison sentences, far harsher than those of policemen accused of beating to death and assaulting protesters

A group of 21 women, seven of whom were minors, were sentenced to jail and juvenile detention terms of 11 years on Wednesday for staging a protest outside a school in Egypt.

They were handed down shortly after the interim military-backed regime made the highly symbolic decision to order the arrest of two of the liberal protest leaders most closely associated with the revolution against President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

The women arrested last month in Alexandria were supporters of Mr Morsi and members of the "7am Club" which staged protests before school started. Images of the defendants, many of them teenage girls, sitting in the dock in white prison uniforms and hijabs were circulated on social media.

Their jail terms were compared to the seven years handed down to two Alexandria policemen accused of beating to death Khaled Said, a young businessman whose bloodied image and tribute Facebook page became the revolutionaries' greatest rallying points in 2011. The policemen are currently bailed pending appeal.

Another police officer who was caught in the act of shooting protesters in the eyes with birdshot in late 2011 was sentenced to just three years.

The women were charged with being members of a terrorist organisation, blocking roads, and "fighting with knives and stones". Six men were sentenced to 15 years for inciting them.

The sentences of the minors have to be reviewed. They will be transferred to adult prison on reaching the age of 18.

Since it overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi in July, the regime has claimed to be ruling in the spirt of the 2011 revolution. However, this week it reinstated laws restricting public protests and has reasserted its right to try civilians in military courts.

Meanwhile, the public prosecutor's order to detain Ahmed Maher, whose April 6 movement was the most prominent organisation involved in coordinating the 2011 Tahrir Square demonstrations, and Alaa Abdulfatah, a prominent blogger, suggests that having imprisoned large sections of the Brotherhood leadership it may turn against liberal oppositionists more fiercely.

The move followed an illegal rally against the new protest law on Tuesday.

By Wednesday night, fresh crowds were gathering in central Cairo. "We are right back where we were in 2011, and will just have to start again from scratch," said Mohammed Wagieh, 20.

Mr Wagieh, a protest veteran, has been detained once for 20 days in 2011 and on another occasion shot in the leg with live ammunition.

"The fear barrier is now broken," he said. "In the beginning I would have been afraid but now that I have been shot once and arrested once I'm not afraid at all."

The cabinet have defended the protest law on the grounds that rallies are unpopular with residents whose lives were being disrupted. Critics point out that the army cited the scale of popular protests against Mr Morsi at the end of June as justification for moving against him.

The movement that organised those protests, Tamarod, has up until now been among the army's staunchest backers, but at least one leading figure came out against the new law this week.

The army's claim that it had the backing of an overwhelming majority of the Egyptian population for its removal of Mr Morsi was contradicted, meanwhile, by a poll by the Zogby Research organisation saying it was opposed by 51 per cent of those surveyed, with 46 in favour.

The poll showed backing for Gen Abdulfatah al-Sisi, the defence minister and Egypt's most powerful man, at 46 per cent, compared to 44 per cent for Mr Morsi, an indication of the striking division in Egyptian society over the role of political Islam.

Ah, yes, anyone who is surprised, please raise hand. There are talks about pardoning them because of international outrage, but first they are to be sentenced to full term to send clear signal to everyone how further protests will end. Oh, and Egypt returns to Mubarak-era anti-demonstration laws and falsified public opinion polls. Great success for democracy, no doubt.

[Simon_Jester]

Might it be wise to say in the thread title what they were jailed for? This information is probably more important than the duration of the sentence.

[Irbis]

Might it be wise to say in the thread title what they were jailed for? This information is probably more important than the duration of the sentence.

Gee, I would if there was no thread title length limit. And anyway, what would I write? That they are being jailed for being 'terrorists'? Since new Egyptian definition of terrorism is apparently 'assembling before school begins to hold protest' or hell, even 'simply walking to school at wrong time' it wouldn't be terribly informative, now, would it?

[Simon_Jester]

I suggest:

"Egypt jails women, including minors, for school protest"

The exact number of women jailed is not relevant, the exact age of the minors isn't either, the exact length of the sentence is not critical, and that frees up enough characters to put "school protest" in the title.

This sort of thing really is very easy if you give it a little thought.

[Purple]

Ah but than he would not have gotten the emotional gut response he wants before we even click on the thread.

[Flagg]

Who the fuck are you 2 turds to tell him how to title a thread? If a mod has an issue they'll fix it.

[Kitsune]

What can be done to solve the problem (with the issue brought up by the article)

[Purple]

Who the fuck are you 2 turds to tell him how to title a thread? If a mod has an issue they'll fix it.

Mine was actually a response relating to the fact that he did not make the title up but copied it from actual journalistic turds who chose it to illicit an emotional gut response like they always do. That's the real problem.

[Irbis]

This sort of thing really is very easy if you give it a little thought.

Yeah, next time I will be sure to also include colour or the floor in the court chamber and what the judge had for breakfast

The important info - the one that caused international outrage - was number, age, and length of the sentence the women get. Not what pretended charge military officers decided to push.

Ah but than he would not have gotten the emotional gut response he wants before we even click on the thread.

You'd maybe had a tiny amount of point had his proposed title wasn't more emotional and if I didn't simply presented facts, thank you very much

Now, any more pointless off-topic nitpicking, or can we stick to the topic?

[Siege]

The exact number of women jailed is not relevant, the exact age of the minors isn't either, the exact length of the sentence is not critical, and that frees up enough characters to put "school protest" in the title.

My professional opinion is that you are mistaken. In case of this story the length of the sentence is critical whilst the place of protest is not. I in fact would be inclined to put the number of people jailed in the headline before the place of protest. It's the draconian and mass nature of the sentencing that makes the story particularly newsworthy. Whether the protest was held at a school, at a government office or on a random square meanwhile is largely irrelevant.

Mine was actually a response relating to the fact that he did not make the title up but copied it from actual journalistic turds who chose it to illicit an emotional gut response like they always do. That's the real problem.

The Telegraph article in the OP heads with "Egypt jails women protesters for 11 years" which is a fully correct headline, so I don't know why you're getting your hate for journalists on.

I'm also quite baffled by how you can arrive at the conclusion that "the real problem" is apparently journalists when those journalists describe how a country is sentencing peaceful protestors to 11 years in prison when cops who shoot or beat protestors to death get off with less.

[Purple]

The Telegraph article in the OP heads with "Egypt jails women protesters for 11 years" which is a fully correct headline, so I don't know why you're getting your hate for journalists on.

I posted late in the evening and misread. Than I replied to the reply to my post without re reading.

I concede my mistake and step back.

[Simon_Jester]

The exact number of women jailed is not relevant, the exact age of the minors isn't either, the exact length of the sentence is not critical, and that frees up enough characters to put "school protest" in the title.

My professional opinion is that you are mistaken. In case of this story the length of the sentence is critical whilst the place of protest is not. I in fact would be inclined to put the number of people jailed in the headline before the place of protest. It's the draconian and mass nature of the sentencing that makes the story particularly newsworthy. Whether the protest was held at a school, at a government office or on a random square meanwhile is largely irrelevant.

Actually, you have a good point, although I still think the fact that they were protesting matters, because there is zero to minimal outrage if you don't know why they were arrested in the first place.

I think maybe I'd rate the information in order of importance:
-Women were arrested for protesting in Egypt.
-These women are going to jail for an insanely long time; 11 years in fact.
-A lot of them were; 21 of them in fact.
-Some of these women are minors
-One of the minors is fifteen years old. [There were multiple minors, not just the 15-year-old]

As an intellectual exercise in fitting character limits, hm...

"Egypt jails 21 women and girls for 11 years, for protest."

What do you think?

I'm also quite baffled by how you can arrive at the conclusion that "the real problem" is apparently journalists when those journalists describe how a country is sentencing peaceful protestors to 11 years in prison when cops who shoot or beat protestors to death get off with less.

Purple's got authoritarian leanings; this has been established for years.

[Siege]

"Egypt jails 21 women and girls for 11 years, for protest."

What do you think?

There's two different numbers, a comma and an unnecessary repetition ("women and girls") in your headline. Individually these elements are undesirable and in combination they make a confusing mess. The goal of a headline isn't to cram as much information as possible into a single sentence, it is to grab the readers' attention by informing them of the core of the matter. I think the Telegraph did very well in that regards and I don't see an easy way to improve on their effort.

I hope this makes it clear that headlining may in fact not be as easy as you thought.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, it would be easy if everyone thought like me, but I already knew everyone doesn't think like me.

The Telegraph did something I wasn't clever enough to think of (as you say, headlining is not easy): deliberately stopping at the two critical pieces of information (it happened to Egyptian protestors, and the sentences were insanely long)

Meanwhile, I was just cramming bits of information into the proposed title without regard for aesthetics, which was dumb.

In my defense, I was pitting my idea against the thread title, not the Telegraph's superior headline.

[K. A. Pital]

My mod opinion - the title is adequate.

[Dalton]

Aren't they being pardoned?

[Sea Skimmer]

Yeah the presidential office said they'll be fully pardoned as soon as the court proceedings finish. As a note to that, said office is currently in the hands of the Egyptian supreme court pending new elections or the declaration of a formal dictatorship or restoration of Morsi.