From Khaled Fahmy’s article, “Women, Revolution, and Army” in the Egyptian Independent:

Ibrahim [Samira Ibrahim, Egyptian woman who successfully sued the army for “subjecting her to a ‘virginity test'”] may not be aware that the humiliating virginity test she was subjected to last March in the Hykestep military prison was not the first of its kind in Egypt’s modern history. In 1832, a “School of Midwives” was established in the Azbakeya district to teach a select number of girls the basics of medical science. Graduates of that school were appointed as paramedics in police stations to do what we now call “forensic” work. In addition to identifying causes of deaths, they also conducted virginity tests on girls whose male relatives had brought them to the police stations to ascertain their virginity.

Police records of hundreds of such tests are kept in the Egyptian National Archives. They contain menial statements such as “found not a virgin,” “her hymen has been removed completely” and “she has been used before.”

(h/t Marilyn Young)