No more internet porn in Egypt

That is what the Ministry of Communications has been mandated to do according to yesterday's issue of Al-Akhbar daily newspaper.
They state that this decision does not breach any human rights to freedom of speech, and that it's against our "morals" and "religious beliefs". It it therefore, according to them, justified to apply a ban on Internet porn sites in Egypt.

Now let's think things through here. First thing is first; I think people should be allowed to "read" whatever they want. The government will not dictate what is appropriate 'literature' and what isn't. Does this mean they will ban sex novels too? Playboy?
But I understand why this pro-censorship non-secular country would disagree with this as a principal. Most people believe in absolute truths, and somehow the government has assumed the role of the guiding angel that will guide its people to the pearly gates of paradise.

Let's look at things from a different angle, where truths are relative and not absolute.
Let's check some facts here:
- The price of getting married - and thus having a healthy outlet for sexual desires - is high. Youth struggle to meet the financial demands of marriage that are posed by society. This means a man has to wait longer to get married, until he saves enough money for it.
- Egypt is a poor country with 20% (in 2005) living below the poverty line (Reuters - 2007). So this means that that the number of men struggling to get married is high - a logical assumption here, right?
- Sexual harassment on the streets is an obvious phenomenon. There are no documented statistics about this at my disposal, but let me make up one for myself. A 26 year old of less than average appeal would encounter 5 in every 10 men that will either say something inappropriate, attempt at some sort of physical contact or in some occasions decide to let certain 'things' see the light of day. I'm going to make a guesstimate here and assume that for females of above average appeal the average would increase to about 7.
- Sexual violence is a question mark. Cases are not reported, but at least one item in the Ahram Newspaper Crime section is related to some group or individual act of sexual violence. Now Ahram is a very toned-down newspaper that opts for understating the negatives and overstating the positives of the country.
Some data is available in this article by IRIN - the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:

'Hend is one of 20,000 women or girls raped every year, according to Egypt’s Interior Ministry, a figure which implies that an average of about 55 women are raped every day. However, owing to the fear of social disgrace, victims are reluctant to report cases, and experts say the number may be much higher. “If the Ministry of the Interior gets 20,000 then you should multiply it by 10,” said Engy Ghozlan of the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights (ECWR) anti-harassment campaign. '

So we've stated some of the facts, let's look at some consequences.
Internet sites constitute an outlet for people that doesn't break the law or harm an innocent person. The lack of such outlet could lead to some of the following:
- Increased sexual harassment on the streets
- Increased sexual violence
- Increased demand on prostitution, which will lead to more Hepatitis C, HIV, and other STDs in addition to more problems with human trafficking and exploitation.
- Increased emotional frustration for men waiting to get married
- And if we take Saudi Arabia as an example - more men turning to same sex partners. If you oppose that, then that is a consequence on its own.
- If you do not oppose same sex partners then it means also an increase in STDs since proper same-sex sex education with reference to protection is non-existent

Has the government really studied the real impact of this decision? Can they say without a doubt that i will not directly or indirectly lead to one or more of these consequences? Has a study been carried out by one of the millions of sociologists in this country to support this? Are they going to respond with stricter laws against sexual harassment and violence to make sure there's no back-lash?
Call me sceptic but I'm going to answer with a big undeniable NO to each of those questions.