CAIRO: While sexual harassment in Egypt, particularly Cairo, was widely reported in the media in recent weeks, very little on the topic has been heard from the authorities, said participants at the Sexual Harassment Forum organized by the American University in Cairo’s (AUC) Cynthia Nelson Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies on Monday.
On Oct. 24, a mob of young men allegedly attacked and sexually assaulted women outside Metro Cinema in Downtown Cairo.
Wael Abbas, blogger and Middle East correspondent for German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), witnessed the event.
“I saw dozens of young men following a girl in the street. They quickly surrounded her and started groping and trying to rip her clothes off, Abbas told the forum.
According to Abbas, more than half a dozen policemen were present at the scene but failed to take action.
“At one point, the police even invited us to one of the movie premieres to stop us from taking pictures of the incident, Abbas continues.
Mariz Tadros of the AUCs Political Science Department, believes the police would have intervened had there been a political demonstration instead of two frightened women trying to evade the constant harassment by dozens of young men.
“If the women outside Metro Cinema were activists shouting ‘Down with Mubarak’, I bet state security would have intervened immediately to hinder the ‘threat to national security’ the women posed by shouting the slogan, Tadros said.
Nadia Illahi, an AUC graduate, is currently conducting a large survey on sexual harassment in Cairo, which she plans to present at conferences in Europe.
“So far the survey shows that almost every woman in Cairo has experienced sexual harassment at some point. It doesn’t matter if you are veiled or unveiled. It happens to everyone, she argues.
While Europe and the United States have laws on sexual harassment, the Egyptian law on the subject tends to be vague.
According to Amr Shalakany, director of the Law Program at AUC, rape, sexual assault, and ‘acts of public immorality’ are punishable by prison sentences of up to seven years in Egypt, but the rules under the current laws are suffering from severe enforcement problems.
“First, the person filing the claim must provide both her name as well as the name of the offender, which some people are uncomfortable with.
“As a victim of sexual harassment, you cannot file a claim anonymously and you must also know the name of your attacker, since prosecutors won’t file a case against anonymous offenders.
“Second, police stations in Egypt are places you just don’t want to visit due to their bad reputation of corruption and violence. The problem of sexual harassment in Egypt has deep social components, Shalakany argues.
Recently the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR) started a campaign to highlight the increase of sexual harassment in Egypt.
“With this campaign we are aiming to raise public awareness of sexual harassment in our country through intense advocacy with the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Education and public forums, Rebecca Chiao, International Relations Officer at ECWR, said.
While raising public awareness of sexual harassment, Tadros stresses the fact that “the authorities are completely denying that it is taking place in this country.
“The government tries to cover up traces of these happenings and then they demonize the people who claim that it did take place. The social stigma of sexual harassment combined with the corrupt nature of the Egyptian authorities prevents women from reporting harassment cases, Tadros continues.
“We don’t feel comfortable walking in the streets of Cairo at any hour of the day. The constant whistling, the “psssss , and sexually suggestive comments from guys on the street are disturbing and disgusting, a group of female students said.
“I don’t want to live in a city where I am constantly harassed the moment I step out of my apartment. It doesn’t matter whether I am going to a party or the grocery store around the corner from my house. It shouldn’t be like this, said 22-year-old Marwa.
