In a Cairo area known for being rich with monuments, where numerous bazaars straddle the famous pyramids of ancient Egypt, passersby could catch an unfamiliar glimpse of dummies being hanged or giant circle-shaped objects with thorn-like edges situated in a cage.
Replicas of ancient artefacts are ubiquitous in the bazaars of Haram district but a 53-year-old man marched to a different drummer after deciding to set up a makeshift museum to display torture devices that he has been collecting for over ten years from all over the world.
Mohamed Abdel-Wahab, a researcher in political assassination and torture who studied business administration in the United States, made use of his passion to lay bare the “ugly side of humans,” he told Ahram Online in an interview.
“Oppression, persecution and torture leave indelible marks on the victims,” the bespectacled man, who sports a goatee beard, said at his residence, which hosts an abundance of real torture devices and replicas as well as sketches of torture mechanisms.
“Nobody in the Middle East considered the idea of entering that horrid field. Some people ask me if I have ever been tortured, but one doesn’t need to be tortured to feel for humans who are suffering.
“When for example someone tells you that he has been electrocuted, you wouldn’t realise the true extent of that unless you see the device itself. You will then simply react with the ‘Oh My God phrase’!
A type of torture that involves inserting the end of the rubber hose of a pump into the anus and inflating the rectum like a balloon
“I just felt it’s necessary to show the people how gruesome this crime is, which does not fall under the statute of limitations. It’s important to show the true face of those soldiers of hell. They should be tainted forever and thrown into the dustbin of history.”
The makeshift museum contains a variety of devices, from the heavy ones such as breaking wheels and iron chairs to small handcuffs, breast rippers and iron foot casings.
Many belonged to the era of Medieval Inquisition when the Catholic Church created a series of inquisitions to suppress heresy.
“I have travelled around the world for ten years to bring all that, I visited many museums and searched for anything that would guide me to those devices,” Abdel-Wahab added.
“That was very exhausting because it’s not like collecting stamps or coins. They are usually sold in bazaars or auctions. Some are real and some are perfectly designed with the same dimensions and weight of the actual ones.”
Execution by letting fleas eat the victim's scalp before penetrating his skull
In an adjacent street, Abdel-Wahab hanged a banner to call for the return of the skull and remains of Suleiman Al-Halabi, a Syrian student who was tortured before being executed by the French occupation forces in 1800 for assassinating French general Jean Baptiste Kleber.
Few meters away, a dummy depicting Al-Halabi is instilled in a lamp post to resemble the same way he was executed, by inserting a stake into the interior parts of his body.
Egyptian obstacles
Abdel-Wahab remains keen to open a state-sponsored torture museum in Egypt but said his plans are opposed by the authorities.
The only help he got from the government was in 2011 when then antiquities minister Zahi Hawass allowed him to display the torture devices in Cairo’s famous citadel, a medieval Islamic fortification built by illustrious Ayyubid ruler Salaheldin.
“That fair proved a huge success but afterwards they kept putting obstacles in my path. Then antiquities minister Mohamed Ibrahim [Hawas' successor] asked me to pay 200 Egyptian pounds for every visitor to my museum, this was practically impossible.
“I then asked to display the torture devices in the citadel’s prison in a 50-50 profit share between me and the government, but my request was rejected.
“I knew that Mohamed Ibrahim wanted to ruin my project upon instructions from security officials, who felt this museum would expose the practices of Egyptian police. If the shoe fits, wear it!”
Abdel-Wahab is still adamant he can pursue his target. “If God wants this to happen, it will happen regardless of anything else,” he said.
Hats worn by British soldiers during the Denshawai Incident, a name given to a dispute which occurred in 1906 between British military officers and locals in Egypt
The Iron ball was tied to the prisoner's feet to limit his movement. It was widely used by Qansuh al-Ghawri, a Mamluk Sultan who reigned from 1501 to 1516
The Iron Chair, where the victim was seated on several strips or plates of brass and placed over an open flame and slowly roasted alive
'The virgin' device tied the victim inside, and one of the two doors was shut, penetrating the victim's flesh with the strategically-placed spikes that didn't penetrate any vital organs. It took many hours - or even days - for death to occur.
The breaking wheel, a device used to break the criminal's bones, bludgeoning him to death
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