HOPES for an improvement in the plight of gays in Egypt have been dashed after Cairo police raided a gay hammam bath house and dragged off the patrons naked to detention cells.
Police than reportedly subjected the naked men to anal probes in search of "proof of homosexual activity" according to a report in GAY STAR NEWS.
As news of the unprecedented raid spread, local residents of the neighborhood were said to have broken into the gay sauna and "destroyed it" in a display of anti-gay rage and wanton looting of valuables.
Foreign gay witnesses said the gay hammam had been in operation for years and that there had never been any trouble with neighbors in the past, who in fact gladly offered directions to it and welcomed the additional business at their own shops from the influx of customers.
At least 14 men were arrested for "fahesha" (indecency) at the hammam in the working-class El Marg district of Cairo on Friday, October 11th.
A prosecutor ordered they should be held for "forensic tests" which include "anal probe" tests to examine if they have engaged in gay anal sex.
These tests, often used in the Middle East and North Africa, have been discredited as scientifically meaningless and are considered a form of torture by international human rights bodies.
The arrested men range in age from just 18 to 57.
Egyptian media and GSN reported the number of arrests at 14 but it has now emerged that may just be the number of "clients" rounded up in the raid. Workers and the "health club" manager have also apparently been detained.
After the fall of the Islamist Mursi regime, gays in Egypt had been cautiously optimistic that their situation might improve. The latest incident has dampened those hopes.
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