Mob sex assaults stun Egypt

Uniformed Egyptian police pull a woman in nothing but her underclothes from a frenzied mob.
"Get back boy! Get back!" the officers say as one lifts his pistol into the air.
Large patches of skin on the victim appear bloodied and raw as she struggles to walk toward a police van with hordes of men still fighting for a handful of her body.
Moments later, she falls to the ground, naked. Police carry her into the vehicle, seemingly incapable of thwarting the crowd.
In the background, revelers set off fireworks and wave flags to celebrate the inauguration of Egypt's new president.
This is just one of at least five mob sexual assaults that took place in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Sunday, according to the "I Saw Harassment" campaign, which documents sexual violence against women in Egypt.
Four of the five victims sexually assaulted in the square required medical attention, the "I Saw Harassment" campaign said. The attacks against them were so ferocious that several officers deployed to rescue the women were themselves wounded by the crowd, according to a statement from the Interior Ministry on Monday.
Police arrested seven men Monday on charges of sexual harassment after two women filed police reports and identified their attackers, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
The response by authorities did little to squelch anger on social media channels, where many criticized the authorities and criticized local media for a lack of professionalism.
"Every day sexual harassment is a social epidemic affecting everyone, every day. Mob violence is an extreme form of this act that has been normalized by society," said Noora Flinkman, communication manager at HarassMap, a volunteer-based initiative aimed at combating sexual harassment.
A 2013 United Nations report from the Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women found that 99.3% of Egyptian women have experienced some form of sexual harassment and more than 82% of female respondents felt unsafe in the street.
The mass attacks come just days after Egypt passed the first law criminalizing sexual harassment, making it punishable by up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of 50,000 Egyptian pounds.