Spain rewards official feminism in Egypt and unleashes the outrage of persecuted activists

• Sexual violence: The brutal and massive assault on a young woman dusts the debate on the epidemic of sexual violence in Egypt

• Repression: sexual violence, the weapon of the Egyptian regime

In

, a country that imprisons women for their "indecent" videos on the

application

or persecutes activists who denounce virginity tests,

has chosen this Saturday to recognize the feminism most linked to the Egyptian regime.

The Spanish Minister of

, Arancha González Laya, has used her visit to

to decorate

, director of a pro-government women's rights association, to the astonishment of the persecuted local community of feminists.

At the beginning of this year, after his appointment, González Laya assured that under his mandate Spain would adopt "a feminist foreign policy."

"Gender sensitivity will be present in all foreign action policies and instruments," he outlined.

An impulse in which Spanish diplomacy in Cairo frames the public recognition of Lotfy, an Egyptian lawyer who established the pro-government

, advises the regime and enjoys public repercussion through her participation in the controlled universe of local media.

The awarding of the official cross of the Order of Civil Merit has garnered criticism from local feminists.

"With this decoration, the Spanish Government launches a very problematic message at a time when the regime persecutes, imprisons and tortures feminists. Egypt has independent and brave women of different generations,"

, director of the association

, told EL MUNDO

feminist

and recipient in 2016 with the prestigious

, known as the Alternative Nobel Prize.

Hasan has been banned from leaving Egypt for five years because of his battle against gender violence, in favor of the political participation of Egyptian women and the relief of victims of sexual harassment.

Her assets and those of her association have been frozen since 2017 and she is accused of receiving foreign financing that could cost her a life sentence.

"It is the feminist movement that fights against state violence that should have been awarded," suggests who denounces that the award underpins "the Egyptian narrative that excludes women's rights as human rights."

Other activists who have refused to attend the event, held late this afternoon outside the residence of the Spanish ambassador in Egypt, have expressed themselves in similar terms.

Asked by EL MUNDO, González Laya has argued that, "in this case, the efforts of this activist for the economic empowerment of women and working women in Egypt are recognized."

In his speech, he described her as an "incredible woman".

The award proposal came from the Spanish authorities in Egypt.

Egypt has been living for months an authentic social revolution regarding sexual harassment, widely spread throughout the most populated country in the Arab world.

At the beginning of summer, dozens of complaints against a young man, described as a "sexual predator", led to his prosecution.

An advance that, however, has suffered a bitter setback in the case of a group of upper-class youth who abused women at a party at the Cairo hotel in

.

Following a judicial investigation, the case turned upside down and the witnesses were arrested and charged with debauchery.

One of them was subjected to virginity tests.

The head of Spanish diplomacy met this Saturday with Egyptian President

and his Egyptian counterpart,

.

During the press conference with Shukri, González Laya timidly assured that he had addressed "values ​​and rights" in Egypt.

Since the

riot

, more than

dissidents have been imprisoned in an increasingly savage campaign of repression that has not stopped.

During the last five years, more than

Egyptians have suffered enforced disappearances while access to hundreds of web pages has been blocked.

Censorship has been imposed on the media, controlled - according to organizations such as Reporters without Borders - by security agencies.

Speaking to Spanish journalists, González Laya pointed out that "Spanish foreign policy is a policy of values ​​and principles."

"In all my meetings with all the countries with which Spain has a relationship, I raise not only economic, political, national and regional issues, but also issues related to values, rights and principles", he indicated, demanding "diplomacy. discreet ".

González Laya has announced that the President of the Government,

, will soon visit

, where the minister passed this Friday, and

.

"The president intends to travel to Tunisia and Lebanon. The date is not confirmed until the president's agenda is confirmed, which varies depending on the epidemiological situation in our country and in the countries we want to visit," it is finished.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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• Egypt

• Arancha González Laya

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