Cairo’s Tahrir Square once symbolized the hope Egyptians felt when they overthrew Hosni Mubarak and began building a democracy. But this iconic rallying point for protesters has today also come to symbolize the terror and contempt women increasingly face since the Muslim Brotherhood came to power and the country descended into turmoil.

Assaults and gang rapes of women in Tahrir have become so common the last two years that the square is now a no-go zone for women, especially after dark. There are no official statistics. But according to an account in The Times on Tuesday, at least 18 incidents were reported on Jan. 25, the second anniversary of the revolution, during a demonstration against the new Islamist-led government.

Six women were hospitalized, one was stabbed in the genitals and another required a hysterectomy. Hania Moheeb, 42, a journalist, told how a group of men had surrounded her in Tahrir, stripped off her clothes and violated her for almost an hour.

The scandal is not just that such violence happens. The women are being blamed by conservative Islamists for bringing the assaults on themselves. As Adel Abdel Maqsoud Afifi, a police general and lawmaker, said, “Sometimes, a girl contributes 100 percent to her own raping when she puts herself in these conditions.”