Most people, regardless of political affiliation, reacted with simple horror and sympathy to the news that journalist Lara Logan had been sexually assaulted by a mob that took advantage of the tight-packed conditions in Tahrir Square during the post-Mubarak celebrations, which Logan was covering for CBS. Unfortunately, as anti-rape activists could have told you, there's no such thing as a sex crime too brutal that some folks won't try to use it for political score-keeping.
In this case, rightwingers who have an interest in stoking fear and loathing of Muslims worldwide pounced at the opportunity to smear all Egyptians with this crime. Popular rightwing bloggers Debbie Schlussel, Robert Stacy McCain, and Sister Toldja were among those who immediately used the attack to reinforce their anti-Muslim, anti-revolution arguments. But the real cause of sex crime is power, and its abuse, and that is a problem in all the nations on this planet.
While the reaction was entirely predictable, it should be resisted. Not to cover up or deny that sexual violence is a very real problem in Egypt, which is notorious for its high levels of street harassment, but because it's wrong to blame Egypt for this and pretend that it isn't a worldwide phenomenon that crosses cultural and religious boundaries. If street harassment and sexual assault in a culture precludes the people having a right to self-government, then there is no nation on the planet that can be a democracy.
In her otherwise good response to this tragedy, the Washington Post's Alexandra Petri does regrettably also give the "us v them" narrative some juice, arguing that in the United States, unlike Egypt, women can walk the streets "unmolested". But the very website she uses correctly to identify the problem of street harassment in Egypt also has studies that show up to 100% of American women suffer street harassment, as well. It's not uncommon in the US for groups of men to take jubilatory occasions and crowds as permission to sexually assault and rape women, either. Such attacks occur at college parties, high school dances and rock concerts, usually with a crowd of onlookers who don't intervene, as happened with Logan until the army and a group of women saved her.
The response from some quarters in the US should quell any notion that we've somehow grown past our issues with sexual violence that still plague Egypt. This attack also proved that there's apparently no sexual assault so brutal and no victim so clearly innocent that some people won't find an excuse to suggest the victim "had it coming". Journalist Nir Rosen used this as an occasion to complain that Logan will somehow be basking in the attention – as if there's a human alive who wants to be remembered for crime that is basically about humiliating, if not destroying, the victim. (Following an outcry about his remarks, Rosen has resigned his post as a fellow at the New York University centre for law and security.) But another blogger, theblogprof, objectified Logan in an attempt to blame CBS for allowing pretty female journalists to take the important assignments. The Gateway Pundit went the same route, suggesting that the response to sexual assault should be to institute formal discrimination against female journalists, keeping them at home and restricting their possibilities for raises and promotion.
In other words, men use sexual violence to put women in their place, and then a chorus of voices rises to blame women who get attacked for not knowing their place. Sadly, it wasn't just rightwing channels that used this as an opportunity to call for more limits on women's freedoms and opportunity. Simone Wilson of LA Weekly pounced to cast aspersions on Logan's professionalism and to imply she asked for it by taking tough assignments.
As feminists have forever said, sexual violence is a crime of power, committed to control and intimidate women. When people react to sexual assault and rape by suggesting women brought it on themselves, they finish the job the attacker started. It's sad to say that the assault on Lara Logan didn't end when she was rescued in Egypt, and to note that it's now being expanded as an assault on all women who have ambitions, or who are willing to be out in public while looking attractive. This response to Logan's attack should make it clear that the US and Egypt differ on the issue of sexual violence perhaps only in degree but not in kind. That there are differences in degree between cultures should tell us that sexual violence is not inevitable, that it can be curbed and even stopped – and we should never write men off as animals who cannot be expected to control themselves.