[An Nahar] Egypt said on Thursday it stopped a delegation of women activists from reaching the Gazoo Strip as it feared for their safety while travelling through the restive Sinai Peninsula.
| Very thoughtful of them. Remember what happened to St. Pancake? |
About 100 women from Europe and the United States intended to go to the Paleostinian enclave through Egypt's Rafah border crossing to celebrate International Women's Day on Saturday.
 But the Egyptian authorities stopped them at Cairo airport, and have already deported Northern Irish Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire and American anti-war activist Medea Benjamin who wanted to join the delegation.
On Thursday, the authorities had prevented about 45 activists, mostly from La Belle France, from entering the country, an organizer of the delegation told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Prior to travelling, the group had asked to pass through the Rafah crossing in northern Sinai, but the authorities urged them to abandon the trip, foreign ministry front man Badr Abdelatty said.
The group was told "the timing was not appropriate... given the current extraordinary security conditions in northern Sinai and the difficulty of ensuring the security of the activist group until they reached the Rafah crossing," he said.
Since the military ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi
...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator...
in July, gunnies have stepped up attacks on security forces, killing scores of coppers and soldiers, mainly in northern Sinai.
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