EGPYT: State TV Reports On Bathhouse Raid In Which Dozens Were Arrested

Via J. Lester Feder at Buzzfeed:

The Egyptian TV presenter who claims to have reported “group sex” at a Cairo bathhouse to police prompting a raid on Sunday aired her report late Monday evening. The program, by Mona Iraqi of the channel Al-Qahira wal Nas, presents her 26-minute report as an investigation into the spread of AIDS in Egypt, but seems designed to fan a moral panic about homosexuality that has been building since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi seized power last spring, leading to the arrest of more than 100 individuals on charges of homosexuality. Government officials told BuzzFeed News in September that a crackdown on LGBT rights was part of the political strategy of the Sisi regime, which is vulnerable to attack from the Muslim Brotherhood for not adequately defending Islamic values. “Our episode to day is to inform you about what hidden behind AIDS in Egypt,” Iraqi says. She noted that the report was made to coincide with World AIDS Day, on Dec.1, but the broadcast was delayed “for security reasons.” “Our society is full of disasters … and if we kept hiding from that without facing those disasters, frankly, we will all be destroyed.”

As many as 30 men were arrested in the Sunday raid.