In a time of torture : the assault on justice in Egypt's crackdown on homosexual conduct

Extended Survey on Egypt's harsh treatment of men who have sex with men. The trial of 52 men, arrested during a police raid on a Cairo discotheque, the 'Queen Boat', or all its consequences, marked neither commencement nor climax of the crackdown. Even before the bar raid, agents of the Vice Squad (a morals police within the Ministry of Interior_s national police force, with divisions in each jurisdiction) had started surveillance of the Internet, answering personals advertisements placed by men seeking men, arranging meetings with them, and arresting them. Internet entrapment has expanded till by early 2003 it appeared to reach a rate of at least one arrest Justice at Stake 3 a week. It both builds on and reinforces the growing fragmentation of friendships and atomization of trust. Warnings of danger, words of caution, no longer move through shattered circles of increasingly suspicious men. Having closed down places where community could be affirmed and communication could happen, police are now in position to pick off men one by one.