Bothaina Kamel, Egypt's only female presidential candidate and a staunch opponent of military rule, was among those rounded up on Sunday near Tahrir Square.
I first met Ms. Kamel, a former television anchor and seasoned activist, last summer at the office of a human rights organization in Cairo. She had almost no hope of winning the presidency, but the fact that she was running as a candidate was emblematic of the success of the revolution, she told me.
When clashes erupted this weekend in Tahrir Square, I knew Ms. Kamel would be there, standing with the protesters. I learned of her arrest and subsequent release on Twitter. This morning I called her from Toronto to see what happened. She was back in Tahrir Square. Here is what she said, in her own words:
"I was on Mohamed Mahmoud street, near Tahrir Square. There was a lot of shooting and they were using tear gas. I ran with the protesters onto a side street and helped some injured people to the hospital. In the streets I saw the soldiers beat the protesters, the peaceful civilians. The police came to the hospital where I was with some injured. They took our mobiles and our IDs because they wanted to delete all the pictures taken. They asked me to leave. I insisted on staying with the others. Then they took us to the Ministry Of Interior.
I saw the protesters beaten by the police in varying ways. They even beat the women. Some of the protesters told them not to beat me because I am a public figure. When we went to the Ministry they tried to separate me from the rest. We were about 25. Eventually three doctors and seven youth were released with me. We had been kept about an hour. The others, I don't know where they took them. I couldn't protect them. It was so ugly.
I was kept inside an office. A deputy minister came to talk to me. He said he belonged to Mubarak's regime. I said this is why there was a revolution and we are angry. He said Habib el-Adly is a dear friend of mine. While I was there, my own daughter was severely beaten in the same building, in a different room. She is 21. My daughter told me that they beat her friends. One of the girls was bleeding. She was being beaten by soldiers. Even when the soldiers were told they should not be beating girls, they beat her even more until she started to vomit blood.
I saw a girl in the field hospital with eight stitches in her head. All the soldiers came around her and started beating her. She had a total nervous breakdown. They intentionally harass girls sexually. Even I was sexually assaulted. Yesterday while the soldiers were dragging me away, the older ones said don't abuse this woman, she's a public figure, but the young ones started touching my body while taking me away to be interviewed. They were touching my body all over the place.
We're trying to protect our revolution. We are certain that the Military Council is not going to release power without a revolution. They have initiated this violence. I was released after one hour in detention, after they deleted all the footage from my mobile. And that's it. I am back in the Square since yesterday. Since then it's a street war. They try to kill peaceful protesters by shooting them in the head, their eyes, their chest. Every minute I see some injured or dead and the use tear gas and bullets. They are very ugly. It is horrible."