CAIRO: Women’s rights activists are mobilizing efforts to promote a “safe” Eid this year, warning against rampant sexual harassment that had marred the holidays in the past few years.
The recurring issue of mass sexual harassment was first brought into the spotlight in October 2006, when videos of attacks on women in Cairo’s downtown area surfaced, showing hundreds of men surrounding and harassing them.
Activists launched several online campaigns on social media to call for a safe holiday.
Harassmap, a tool for “mapping” sexual harassment incidents in Egypt via Facebook, Twitter or SMS, launched a campaign titled “A safe Eid for everyone in Egypt,” in cooperation with two other groups; “No to Harassment, You’re in Egypt” and “I will not be silent about harassment.”
“Help make this Eid in Egypt safe, we won’t tolerate [the] annual sexual harassment incidents, Egyptian men and women deserve to enjoy Eid in respect, dignity and safety,” the campaign stated on its official page.
Activists from Harassmap met with volunteers interested in participating in a discussion about the campaign at El-Sawy Culture Wheel and to decide on their objectives.
The campaign includes blogging and raising public awareness about harassment on the days before and during Eid, starting on August 31 until September 2, and encouraging people to speak out against such incidents.
It encourages people to participate either online through blogs or Twitter messages, or offline by “raising awareness in your community, graffiti or talking to your friends and neighbors.”
The Facebook group attracted hundreds of people who discussed the issue from different points of view. One person suggested that a way to eradicate sexual harassment is for women to wear “conservative” attire and not provoke the men.
There are also numerous other campaigns on a smaller scale, such as the “Campaign to stop sexual harassment after Eid prayer” and “In the Eid I will go out and have fun and won’t be silent about harassment.”
Campaigns also extended to Alexandria with “Welad El-Balad Campaign for a Safe Eid for Alexandria’s Girls,” which aims to address men.
The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR) has also addressed the issue and called on the government and the people to take a number of precautionary measures.
In a statement, the ECWR called on communities to form popular committees to protect the streets.
They also called on the Ministry of Interior to increase security presence in crowded areas and public gardens.
Other measures ECWR urged the Ministry of Interior to take include designating special departments in police stations to report cases of sexual harassment, set up a hotline and have fire trucks in the major streets in order to disperse any congestion that might jeopardize women’s safety.
“Let us all have a safe Eid as this is the first Eid in post-revolution freedom,” ECWR’s read.
