CAIRO, Egypt – International Women's Day took on special meaning for the more than 1,000 Egyptian women who braved harassment to march through downtown Cairo Wednesday. 

The demonstration was sparked by the belief of many women that the recent political victories by socially conservative Islamists, who now control over 70 percent of the parliament, will eventually undermine the few hard-fought rights they have won. 

“The situation is going backward,” complained flight attendant Nadia Salim. “The Salafists (conservative Islamists who believe in a strict interpretation of Sharia law and that women should have a limited role in society) and Muslim Brotherhood will bring us back 100 years.”

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Trying to preserve existing rights
The women said they took to the streets not to gain more rights, but to preserve those they already enjoy.  "We have to hold onto what we have because of the Salafists and Islamists," warned university professor Iman Azzad. 

Their main demand is that women should make up half of the committee that will draft Egypt's new constitution.  Women fear that the Islamist majority will take away their right to divorce and to win custody of their children

"Women are half of society," said Salim. "Why shouldn’t we form half of the constitutional committee?"

Activist Dina Abou El Soud said she had heard that the country’s judges had plans for women to make up only a 10 percent of the panel shaping Egypt's next constitution. She believes women's rights will be the first thing to be sacrificed in order to please the Islamist majority. 

It’s a sea change from the ousted regime of President Hosni Mubarak, when women were guaranteed 64 parliamentary seats.  In the latest post-revolutionary elections, the quota was eliminated and women won only five seats.  "The other seats went to the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists," said El Soud, co-founder of the Revolutionary Women's Coalition, which has 4,000 members on Facebook.

 "We are going backward, backward and backward," she added as she passed out fliers in English and Arabic. "It is time to make a women's revolution”

El Soud also said that Islamists are trying to discredit existing women's rights by suggesting they were imposed by the Mubarak regime, deriding them as "Suzanne Mubarak's Laws,” the name of the former first lady.

"It’s ridiculous. They are international women's rights that we have gained,” she said.  

Ready for drastic measures
Considering what Egypt's roughly 40 million women stand to lose, Wednesday's turnout was miniscule. Mahy al Aref, a well-dressed pharmacy graduate, said the small crowd was probably due “a lack of educational awareness.”

She said she is worried about putting her German university degree to good use in an increasingly conservative society, a concern shared by her mother, Magda al Akkad, who runs an NGO. "I am worried because of the Islamist direction,” she said. “They have their ideas. I don't know where it will go, but I don't think they will be fair to women in general."

Al Akkad said she said she can foresee a day when Egypt would become unlivable for her and her daughter.  "If fanatics rule, I will leave this country,” she declared.

CAIRO -- The echo from the microphones in the room where the prime minister had just finished his press conference on Saturday morning was still ringing in everyone's ears.

Could he have been right?

Prime Minister Kamal Ghanzoury looked journalists, and by extension the Egyptian people, square in the eye and told them the military and the police were not involved in the clashes on Friday -- and if they were, they were only acting in self-defense.

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He went on to add that the military exercised restraint and did not fire on the crowds.

But even more surprising to many activists, Ghanzoury said the people involved in Friday's clashes were not revolutionaries.

The three-weeklong peaceful protests outside his office turned violent Friday when, according to him, troublemakers attacked the military.

• Violence flares after Egypt tries to crush protest

His depiction was an attempt, protesters felt, to taint them and their sit-in.

Ghanzoury's comments contradicted widespread reports and eyewitness accounts from journalists and activists.

Regardless of the moment that precipitated the initial clash between the military and the protesters, the military's conduct over the past 48 hours has many Egyptians questioning its competence and intentions.

In fact, videos made by eyewitnesses show the military engaged in all kinds of behavior, originally denied by the prime minister, including taunting protesters with rude gestures, lobbing stones at them, chasing them with sticks, beating and dragging them while they are on the ground and in more than one instance, opening fire with pistols.

In the video above, posted on the website of Mosireen, an Egyptian non-profit organization that helps citizen journalists by running a media center in downtown Cairo, alleged members of Egypt's military are seen taunting protesters with rude hand gestures. They can also be seen throwing stones at the protesters in this video.

In another video, aired by a private Egyptian satellite channel, a soldier can be seen aiming a pistol at people who were coming to recover a wounded protester being attacked by a crowd in military riot gear.

In his press conference the prime minister reiterated a point made earlier in a statement by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. All of the families of those killed would be compensated. Those injured would be treated at the state's expense. An independent civilian advisory council created after last month's deadly fighting between security forces and protesters recommended all those arrested during the clashes be released.

But on Saturday, the PM said they were not revolutionaries. In fact, Egypt's general prosecutor ordered 16 people detained for four days pending investigation into their involvement in instigating the clashes and the killings -- and none were members of the military or police. And despite widespread complaints by protesters and human rights organizations, no investigations into alleged military misconduct have been launched by prosecutors.

So why would the military offer to treat those injured and compensate victims if it felt they were behaving illegally? It seems odd for the state to treat so-called martyrs if it viewed them as vandals and agents of foreign hands.

For its part, the military has posted video http://youtu.be/8grDc-iz5wg) on its Facebook page showing what it claims were vandals destroying government buildings. Egypt's historic Geographic Society building was set on fire on Saturday. It was not clear how the fire started in the building, home to some of Egypt's most important historic documents.

 After last month's deadly clashes, the Supreme Council accepted the previous prime minister's resignation and promised to empower his replacement with the full authority he needs to run the country. The new prime minister pledged that force would not be used against demonstrators. But some analysts say that the new clashes raise questions about his ability to reign in the security forces and about the degree of cooperation between the military and the civilians supposedly running the country.  

In a post on his Twitter page, prominent opposition figure Mohammed El Baradei said that if the PM had all of the executive authority of the president, which includes security in the country, then in what capacity did the military police act against the protesters?

So did Prime Minister Ghanzoury know that within minutes of concluding his press conference, the military would unleash an assault against the protesters? If he did, then he purposely put a civilian facade on a military crackdown, some say. If he didn't know, then, as El Baradei pointed out, how can he restore law and order in the country if he is not in charge of the one institution that has all the guns?

CAIRO, Egypt — An American filmmaker and journalist told Friday how she was arrested and accused of throwing Molotov cocktails by the Egyptian security forces as she fled from clouds of tear gas.

Jehane Noujaim, an award-winning filmmaker best-known for her al-Jazeera TV documentary "Control Room," was seized by security forces while documenting clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

She was detained in the city's Tora prison for 36 hours without a phone and her camera was confiscated, Noujaim said in an interview with NBC News.

Noujaim, who is of Egyptian descent, was not physically harmed during her detention — in contrast to fellow American-Egyptian activist Mona Eltahawy, who told msnbc.com on Thursday that riot police beat her, sexually assaulted her and dragged her by her hair.

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She was near Tahrir Square on Wednesday evening to record events because she has been making a film over the past 10 months about the country's revolution and the role of activists in the now-famous street.

"With tear gas everywhere, myself and my crew got separated from each other. I was just trying to basically get out of the area because the tear gas is incredibly strong," she said.

• Egypt protesters stage 'last chance' freedom march

"I ran into then one military guy ... my camera got taken, my eyepiece got broken by him, he called me a spy; whereas the rest of the military had been very helpful in getting us out of the situation, this particular military guy was absolutely not," she said.

Noujaim said it was many hours after her arrest before she was told the reason she had been detained.

"My charge was throwing Molotov cocktails and destroying public property," she said. "If I throw a rock I'd hit the back of the head of the protester in front of me ... that claim was so ridiculous, yet I was in prison for 36 hours because of it."

"If that happens to me, imagine what happens to a kid who gets picked up off the street who doesn't have all of these connections," she added.

"We were taken to Tora prison in one of these big blue trucks driven there and back again. Our phones were gone at this point so we weren't able to contact anybody," she said.

Hope for future
Despite her ordeal, Noujaim spoke of her belief that Egypt would soon have "systems of law" in place.

"These changes take time and I don't want to put this gigantic blame on the poor kids in the police or the poor kids in the army," she said.

"My hope is that ... people all around Egypt will soon be able to have systems of law in place, which really do protect their rights because before human rights are dealt with, before these systems of law are in place, it's very difficult to talk about democracy and politics and who one should vote for," she said.

Noujaim said the experience of being involved in the Tahrir Square protests was "indescribable."

"I don't want to say that Tahrir represents the entire country, but it does represent the hopes and the dreams of so many people in the country," she said.

"What does it accomplish, it's people out there saying that things still need to change and it's a beautiful incredible energy when you're there and you're listening to people that are willing to do whatever it takes to change the mentality and to change the systems in the country."

Edited by msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson

Updated at 11 a.m. ET

An Egyptian-American columnist and activist told msnbc.com Thursday that she was sexually assaulted and beaten by police after being arrested in Cairo.

Speaking after her release following hours of questioning, Mona Eltahawy said her right hand and left arm were broken on Wednesday night by riot police who dragged her by the hair and groped her between the legs.

"They acted like animals," she told msnbc.com in a telephone interview. "I was filming the protests with my camera phone on Mohammed Mahmoud Street when they surrounded me and pulled me away."

Eltahawy posted on her Twitter account that her right hand was "so swollen I can't close it."

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She posted a picture of her hand and tweeted that she was being taken to hospital.

She alleged at least one officer stuck his hand down her jeans, adding: "I managed to stop him before he touched my genitals. They touched me all over, groped every part of my body and called me names, called me a whore."

The claims by the Egyptian-born activist, who holds dual citizenship, could not immediately be verified.

She told msnbc.com she had been held for several hours being questioned by the Interior Ministry and Military Intelligence officials before being released early on Thursday.

"I think when they realised I had dual citizenship they were aware they had to be more careful," she said. "Eventually they apologized for the police behaviour and sent me home in a taxi."

"They even gave me 50 [Egyptian] pounds for the fare. The journey was only 18 pounds but I gave the driver the whole lot because I just wanted nothing to do with their money," she added.

Earlier she had posted on Twitter: "The dogs of the CSF (Central Security Force) subjected me to the worst sexual assault ever."

The latest news on protests in Egypt

According to her blog, Eltahawy spoke in May at the Oslo Freedom Forum about the power of censorship.

Camera seized
An American filmmaker and journalist, Jehane Nojaim, was also arrested by Egyptian police while documenting clashes in Tahrir Square, she told a colleague, Karim Amer, by phone.

Nojaim is an award-winning filmmaker of Egyptian ancestry who is best-known for her Al-Jazeera TV documentary "Control Room."

Amer said Nojaim was detained and her camera was confiscated. Amer said he was separated from her after they both fled from tear gas being fired by authorities.

The U.S. Department of State tweeted early Thursday that it was aware of the reports that Nojaim and Elthawy had been arrested and said the U.S. Embassy in Cairo was "engaging authorities." 

By Ian Johnston and Alastair Jamieson at msnbc.com, NBC news and the Associated Press

CAIRO – Reaction on the streets of Cairo to Osama Bin Laden’s death ranged from joy to disbelief to anger over the alleged burial at sea. 

“It’s the best news I have ever heard,” confided a former Egyptian general reached by phone who did not want to be named. “He was the source of terrorism in the entire world!” 

“I want to say to Mr. Obama, thank you, thank you so much!” said Mohamed Gharib, a travel agent who blamed bin Laden for acts of terror in Luxor and the Sinai.

Sherif al Helw, an investment banker, shared a hope that bin Laden’s demise would lead to regional peace. “Part of me was relieved. I don’t know why I was relieved, but maybe I thought that would soon lead to the end of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, which would bring a little more stability to the region.” 

However, many refused to believe that the infamous escape artist was at last cornered. “He is like a genie,” said one young man who wouldn’t give his name. “Maybe the man was an imitation or somebody who looks like him. There are lots of mountains and places to hide in Pakistan.”   

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Burial at sea
Others were angered by the nature of the attack and burial at sea. 
 
The U.S. “acted like a cowboy, thugs, and not a civilized country,” said Mamdouh Ismail, a defense lawyer for Islamic militants and the founder of Al Nahda, an Islamic fundamentalist party. He was angered by the American violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty by going in to kill bin Laden. 

“What Obama said is untrue. It wasn’t a victory. On the contrary, it is bin Laden who won because he achieved what he said he wanted in his speeches…he said he won’t be arrested and will fight and become a martyr,” said Ismail.

But it was bin Laden’s reported burial at sea that Ismail found utterly shocking and unforgivable.

“I think this kind of news will provoke an angry reaction in the whole Islamic world because we have rules about how to bury the dead and this will ignite a furious reaction because they did not follow Islamic practice,” said Ismail. “This is against all human rights, principles and respect for the dead.” 

The White House says that bin Laden’s burial was done in conformance with Islamic “precepts and practices.” They say his body was washed, placed in a white sheet and then placed inside a weighted bag. According to the White House, a military officer read prepared religious remarks, which were translated into Arabic, and then his body was tipped from a flat board and eased into to sea.

Essam Aryan, a relatively moderate leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, also was troubled by the burial. “According to any religion, his body must be handed over to his family. This is inhuman to keep the body away from the family.” 

However, Aryan did see bin Laden’s demise as a chance to turn a new page. “I think this can mean a new start for a good relation built on dual respect, common values, common interests.” 

He blamed the al-Qaida chief for distorting the image of Islam and opined that since the U.S. has “taken its revenge” on bin Laden, the country could adopt a new policy toward Muslims and Arabs.

“Now it is time to correct this image and to respect Muslims all over the world. It is time to end the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and announce that it is time for the rights of the Palestinians to be respected,” said Aryan. “I hope now we have the end of such an era, the era of violence, the era of wars, the era of disrespect of humanity, of Muslims and Arabs. America killed not only Osama bin Laden, America killed a million in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine.”  

Although reaction toward the fatal attack on bin Laden was mixed, nobody doubted al-Qaida’s resolve to avenge his death.

It should be noted that bin Laden’s No. 2 man was Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahiri. He remains a key target for the United States and has a $25 million bounty on his head. He would presumably take charge of the al-Qaida operation in bin Laden’s absence.

“I am sure [Ayman al-Zawahiri] will react, but I don’t know how. He was bin Laden’s friend and companion in the organization and had strong relations to him,” said Ismail. “There is no doubt there will be a reaction, but God knows what it will be.”

Related links:
Complete coverage of the Death of bin Laden
Plenty of targets remain after bin Laden

By Yuka Tachibana, NBC News Producer
CAIRO – Among the thousands of protesters who were back at Tahrir Square Wednesday morning was electrical engineer Mohammad Hassan, walking hand in hand with his two children.
 
Hassan said he had never taken part in any kind of political protest until he saw what was happening in Tahrir Square. Wednesday was his third visit.

Despite last week’s violence, he said the square was now safe enough to come with his children. 

Like his fellow protesters, Hassan said he was fed up with the corruption and injustice. “We must create a new Egypt for our children,” he said.

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Earlier in the morning, his daughter Mariyam, 11, recited a poem mourning those who lost their lives during the violence at the square last week.

And his son, Hassan Ahmad, 13, pulled out a handwritten message in English which he read to me: “Egypt is the most beautiful nation in the world with the best people in the world … I have come here to see the new birth of Egypt and I want for my country, for our future, to be best by freedom, develop and democracy.” (See a short video of his speech above).

Despite the hundreds of thousands of people who have traipsed through this square over the last 16 days of protests and the hundreds who stay through the night in their makeshift tents, there is order in the square.

Garbage is collected regularly – trash bins are marked for organic and non-organic waste – and street cleaners have been sweeping the square. There are first aid centers where protesters can have their cuts and bruises looked after and there is even a well-organized lost-and-found center. 

The atmosphere is jovial. Like the Hassan family, there were hundreds of other families with young children, some joining in the chants and marches, others simply strolling through the square.

Hassan said he and the kids were going to listen to the speeches.

But they were also going to stay and have lunch at the square – there are certainly plenty of food stalls to choose from – and simply enjoy the day.

Here is a round-up of the latest in the blogs following developments in Egypt as of 11:00a.m.ET. Sources: Al Jazeera English, BBC, the Guardian, the New York Times, The Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal 

Al Jazeera English
Live blog Feb 3: Egypt protests
(All times are local in Egypt, ET+7)

6:22pm We're seeing wire reports of significant anti-Mubarak demonstrations at the Egyptian embassy in Beirut late this afternoon. More than 100 protesters clashed with Lebanese police after trying to break through a security cordon and enter the building. No arrests or injuries were reported, but police were using batons and rifle butts to push away the crowds. Army troops were then brought in to reinforce the police lines. Many of the protesters were holding up portraits of the late Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.

6:16pm One of Al Jazeera's correspondents near Tahrir Square says:

People are hurling petrol bombs down at the crowds below, and you can see small fires breaking out...It's difficult to determine who is who and which supporters belong to which group. We were also hearing a string of gunshots and seeing flares fired into the air - we assume by the military.

6:11pm Egypt's Health Ministry says that 13 people were killed and 1,200 injured in last night's clashes between pro- and anti-government demonstrators.

5:19pm Media in the line of fire in Egypt - Al Jazeera's online producer reports on how domestic and foreign journalists have come under siege amid the turmoil in Egypt. http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/02/02/live-blog-feb-3-egypt-protests#

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The Guardian
Egypt protests – live updates
(All times GMT, ET +5)

3:55pm: There is a huge protest going on in Alexandria, which has not yet seen the violence that has been witnessed in the capital.

3:53pm: A British man, Simon Hardy, has called in to relay his experiences in Tahrir Square this afternoon:

“In the last few minutes some snipers on top of the Hilton roof opened fire, maybe seven or eight gunshots. The protesters are saying two people have been killed, one shot in the head and one in the neck.

There are growing numbers of pro-government protesters on Ramsay Street and behind the barricades on our side, still thousands of people in the square.

People are saying: 'Is there going to be another attack tonight?" Anti-government protesters are saying that if they survive tonight, the demonstration tomorrow will be massive. They are calling it departure day, the day Mubarak will be kicked out of office. Everything hinges on the next 24 hours.'

BBC Live blog
Anti-Mubarak protesters hit back
(All times GMT, ET + 5)

3:58p.m. Recap: There have been renewed clashes in the centre of Cairo between pro- and anti-Mubarak groups. The army had been holding a line between the two earlier in the day, but anti-government protesters then went on the offensive, pushing them out of some of the streets near Cairo's Tahrir Square.

3:43p.m. : The BBC's Khaled Ezzelarab reports: One protestor killed in Abdel Monem Riyad Square in central Cairo, many more injured, among them three in critical condition.

3: 38p.m.: Adham Helal in Cairo says: "Since the protests started I haven't slept, I haven't eaten and I haven't worked. I've been standing guard at my street. My only request is to give one month of peace and check the feedback from the government. If you still feel that you need to protest, go back to Tahrir, they will not remove the square."

New York Times Lede Blog 
(All times ET) 

11:22 A.M. |BBC Equipment Seized by Egyptian Government.

Jon Williams, the BBC News foreign editor, reported on Twitter 20 minutes ago: "Egyptian security seize BBC equipment at Cairo Hilton in attempt to stop us broadcasting."

In his two previous updates on Thursday, Mr. Williams had written:

In Cairo locked down inside Ramses Hilton. Frontline on doorstep - Army say pro-Mubarak supporters told to target reporters.

Mubarak supporters stormed hotels in Cairo, chasing foreign journalists. Army now securing Hilton hotel.

Click on blog for more reports of journalists being attacked and detained in Egypt

The Atlantic  
Liveblogging Egypt: Day 7

10:48 a.m. EST / 5:48 p.m. Cairo  Reports are still trickling in about the brutality of last night's violence in Cairo, when many government forces dropped the facade of being grassroots Mubarak supporters and more openly assumed their actual roles as riot police or secret police. This excerpt from a haunting Wall Street Journal account provides a small glimpse into the crackdown currently underway. Reuters reports that at least 150 people have been killed so far in Egypt.

10:37 a.m. EST / 5:33 p.m. Cairo  Egypt's Ministry of Health reports that so far at least 13 people have been confirmed killed during Wednesday's clashes in Cairo and 1,200 injured.

10:33 a.m. EST / 5:33 p.m. Cairo  In a sign of the government's rapidly escalating campaign to remove journalists from Cairo's streets, the Washington Post has just posted this notice. While it's impossible to know the exact logic behind these arrests, governments tend to oust journalists in advance of an act it does not want the world to witness.

“We have heard from multiple witnesses that Leila Fadel, our Cairo bureau chief, and Linda Davidson, a photographer, were among two dozen journalists arrested this morning by the Egyptian Interior Ministry. We understand that they are safe but in custody and we have made urgent protests to Egyptian authorities in Cairo and Washington. We've advised the state department as well.”

Wall Street Journal blog
10:55 AM (all times ET)

U.N. to Evacuate Staff From Egypt
Posted by WSJ Staff
The Associated Press

The United Nations began to evacuate much of its staff in Egypt on Thursday, while more than 4,000 passengers made their escape through Cairo airport a day after the protests gripping the Egyptian capital degenerated into a bloody street brawl.

The U.N. was sending in two chartered aircraft to take 350 staff and their families to Cyprus, said Rolando Gomez, a spokesman for its peacekeeping mission on the Mediterranean island. Each aircraft was to make two roundtrips to Cyprus.

“The staff will be temporarily relocated due to the security situation in Egypt,” Gomez told The Associated Press, adding that arrangements had been made to accommodate up to 600 staff and their families at hotels in Cyprus. It was unclear whether they would remain on the island or head to other destinations