When Doctors Torture: The Anus and the State in Egypt and Beyond

his was no ordinary doctor's office. His sarcophagal desk made him look like a statue on a gravestone. His card announced he was a Deputy Minister of Justice. The walls bore awards from international associations, a reliquary of professional renown. He headed Egypt's national Forensic Medical Authority, an agency responsible for scientific investigation of crimes-and for evaluating allegations of official torture. We were interviewing this plump man with salt-andpepper hair, who answered in alternate, brusque Arabic and English, and curtly tried to change the subject. No more at ease than he, we shifted in our seats. In a corner, half-concealed behind a tactful curtain like the Wizard of Oz, was a small examining table. We knew it was the scene of the crime, where the doctor committed torture.