US reverses decision to honor Egyptian woman
State Department puts Samira Ibrahim's Women of Courage award on ice after anti-American, anti-Semitic tweets revealed
The State Department had said Samira Ibrahim would be among recipients of an International Women of Courage award presented by Secretary of State John Kerry and first lady Michelle Obama on Friday. Now the State Department says she won't be honored Friday because of anti-American and anti-Semitic comments on her Twitter account.
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State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday officials will first study the tweets, which include support for attacks against US diplomatic installations and praise for a terrorist assault against Israeli citizens in Bulgaria.
Ibrahim is already in the US. She says her account was hacked, though the comments stretch back several months.
Ibrahimi was to recive the award for exposing the "virginity tests" conducted by the Egyptian army on girls arrested in Tahrir Square during the revolution.
Instead of keeping the tests under wraps, Ibrahimi decided to speak up, and for this reason she was chosen to receive the Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award.
Right-wing American journalist Samuel Tadros wrote in the "Weekly Standard" that on July 18th, after the terror attack in Burgas, in which five Israelis and one Bulgarian were killed, Ibrahim tweeted: "An explosion on a bus carrying Israelis in Burgas airport in Bulgaria on the Black Sea. Today is a very sweet day with a lot of very sweet news."
Tadros attached links to all her tweets, including one quoting Hitler.
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