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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/01/female-muslim-brotherhood-protesters-arrested

EGYPT - YOUNG FEMALE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD PROTESTORS ARRESTED & DETAINED IN ALEXANDRIA

Pro-Mohamed Morsi female students shout slogans during a protest at Alexandria University on Thursday. Photograph: Xinhua/Landov/Barcroft Media

Patrick Kingsley in Cairo and agencies - 1 November 2013

Egyptian police have taken the unusual step of detaining 22 female supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, raising tensions before Monday's much-awaited trial of the party's Mohamed Morsi, the president of the country who was removed by the military in July.

Thousands of Morsi's supporters have been arrested and more than 1,000 killed by state officials since his overthrow. But few women have been detained for any extended period, which makes Thursday's round-up of nearly two dozen women in Alexandria – Egypt's second city – a significant escalation. It is also seen as a warning from the security forces that further protests in the build-up to Morsi's trial will not be tolerated.

"It sends a message – particularly in Alexandria, where the protests are often much stronger," said an organiser from the national anti-coup alliance, a coalition of Morsi supporters, who requested to remain anonymous. "If you'll escalate, we'll bash back."

But the anti-coup alliance says it will not back down, calling for four straight days of protests in the run-up to the trial. It claims that it "will not relent, rest or sleep until the coup is fully defeated".

The 22 women are aged between 15 and 25 and are accused of several charges related to the protest, including the disruption of traffic during demonstrations, a senior security official told a journalist in Alexandria.

The city has experienced significant unrest this summer. The protests continued this week at Alexandria university – where pro-Morsi students disrupted lectures with vuvuzela-style trumpets. There has also been sustained violence at Cairo's al-Azhar university, the global centre of Sunni learning, the branch of Islam with which the Brotherhood is associated. Islamist protesters have engaged in daily clashes with riot police, causing damage to several offices and leaving corridors strewn with debris. Clashes intensified after Wednesday's arrest of Essam el-Erian, one of the last senior Brotherhood leaders to have remained at large.

Morsi was ousted by the army on 3 July, following days of mass protests against his government. His removal sparked the most severe crackdown on the Brotherhood since the 1950s, with almost every member of the group's executive board arrested and many of its rank-and-file injured during five army assaults of protesters over the summer.

Morsi's supporters, who form a significant minority of the population, demand his return to office. But the new government installed by the army is determined to continue with what it says is the re-establishment of democracy in Egypt – a process that includes writing a new constitution and electing a new parliament and president.

But the government's critics – including those who oppose the authoritarian values of both the army and the Brotherhood – fear it is enforcing a return to the restrictive policies of the Mubarak era. A new law being debated in cabinet would effectively outlaw street protest – in a move that rights activists say is an indication of the new regime's authoritarian tendencies.

Morsi was also considered an autocratic leader. Monday's trial – the first time he will have been seen in public since July – pertains to clashes outside the presidential palace last December that he is alleged to have instigated.