Egypt: Activists protest ?virginity tests?

Egyptian activists held online protests on Wednesday, and promised to keep them going, as they demanded that the country?s military authority investigate charges of sexual abuse on women by soldiers.

The interim authority, formed after ruler Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February, has faced increasing criticism for slow pace of reforms and the recent admission of abuse on pro-democracy protesters during the upheaval by a senior army official.

Youth activists on Wednesday held online protests and called for more agitation as they said Egypt?s mainstream media stepped too delicately around the military who have seemed to be intolerant of dissent.

While the army had earlier denied claims by Amnesty International that 18 women detained in March were subjected to ?virginity checks? and threatened with prostitution charges, an Egyptian general this week told CNN that these were indeed conducted.

?The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine. These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found?molotov cocktails and [drugs],? the official told the U.S. TV network, requesting anonymity.

Ironically, he said that the tests were conducted so that the women would not be able to claim that they had been sexually abused while in custody.

Amnesty International decried the general?s remarks for suggesting that only virgins could be victims of sexual abuse and called for a probe.

They said that one of the victims, 20-year-old Salwa Hosseini had revealed that she and other women were forced to a strip search by a female guard while male soldiers looked and took pictures. The women were also beaten and given electric shocks, she said.