CAIRO: A redux of the sexual harassment incidents that shocked Cairenes during Eid El-Fitr in October 2006 plagued the city yet again on Eid Al-Adha.
Incidents of harassment were reported in Al Masry Al Youm’s Jan. 1 issue, which stressed that such behavior has become endemic to special occasions where large crowds gather to celebrate in public places.
The newspaper reported that these incidents took place all over the city, especially on main streets and in front of cinemas.
Seventeen-year-old Karim Farouk, a high school student, witnessed one such case in front of a large multi-story mall in Nasr City.
“I saw a young girl trying to cover herself up after her clothes were torn off by a gang of street boys. She had to be bundled into a taxi to escape, Karim told The Daily Star Egypt.
But unlike the case in October, police presence last week was clearly more visible. Twelve men were arrested for harassing girls.
The crackdown also included rounding up street children, beggars and pickpockets many of whom were in possession of weapons.
Despite the rampant occurrence of these harassment incidents, they were underreported partly because most local news was drowned out by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s execution.
In October news of mass attacks on girls in Cairo’s downtown area – where hundreds of young men surrounding their veiled, unveiled young and old victims, grabbing, molesting and tearing off their clothes — was first circulated by blogger Malek Mostafa.
Mostafa was eyewitness to the events which unraveled near Metro Cinema during a movie premiere.
Little did he know that his post would migrate to the mainstream press, causing a media blitz on Egyptian and Arab satellite channels.
Before long the incidents were being debated and reported in the state-owned Al-Ahram Weekly and countless terrestrial TV talk shows were discussing the strange phenomenon.
The incidents triggered severe critiques of the absence of adequate security to safeguard ordinary citizens.
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.
The Ministry of Interior said police precincts downtown had not received any complaints or claims sexual harassment during the October incidents.
With additional reporting by Alexandra Sandels
