The nightmare of sexual harassment in Egypt
Nov 24th, 2009 | By Dalia Ziada | Category: Egypt, Sexual Harassment, Women
It is the patriarchal mentality that holds women accountable for the mistakes of men.
Three years ago, a number of bloggers on their way back home after celebrating Eid el-Fitr in downtown Cairo, saw a group of men standing around Talaat Harb Street, harassing every woman passing by, including those wearing the full-veil, or niqab! The bloggers could not help but take photos of the shocking scene with their mobile phone cameras and published the incident online.
The shocking story was, then, picked up by different local and international media. Simultaneously, some women’s rights groups started calling for ending sexual harassment against women. Ordinary people, especially women, have been encouraged to speak more about their personal experiences with sexual harassment and are thinking of brilliant and creative ways to stop it.
Before this horrible incident in 2006, sexual harassment, either verbal or physical, was one of the biggest taboos in society and women did not dare to complain about it in public. Even the state-owned media kept telling illusionary statements about Egypt as “the safest country in the world†in comparison to other countries in the West where rates of harassment and rape are very high.
However, in the closed female communities, girls schools for instance, women used to speak a lot about the harassment they suffer in public transportation, in the street and sometimes from their male relatives or friends of the family. Sometimes, the women shared ideas, secretly, with each other on how they could protect themselves against harassment. Some young women, especially university students, usually carry weapons, sprays, or small pins, in their handbags to use when necessary to stop the one harassment.
Sexual harassment in Egypt has two forms; verbal and physical. The verbal harassment is like when a boy tells a girl passing by that she is so beautiful or says a word that indicates that he has some sexual interest in her. This does not include direct interaction between the victim and the perpetrator. A girl is usually instructed to go away and never talk to the man harassing her. If she did, every one will look down at her as an impolite girl! Moreover, the boy will be encouraged to harass her more if she responds to him in any way.
“Men are like dull dogs in the street. When you pass by them, they might bark at you,†said Karima, a middle-class, well-educated mother of five girls. “If you ignored them, they will not bark again. But if you responded to them, they will bite you. This is what I am telling my girls to do: to ignore the boys harassing them and go on their way.â€
Physical harassment is absolutely every type of physical action toward a woman. This might include touching a woman’s body in a way that offends her; i.e. without her permission. This usually happens in the stuffed public transportation vehicles and sometimes in the subway and workplace. Unfortunately, women in Egypt did not have the courage to speak about this sort of harassment until after the famous incident of Noha Roushdy.
Noha is a young girl who was physically harassed by a truck driver. Noha did not follow the mother’s advice of “ignoring the dog barking at her.†Instead, she stopped him and took him to police station. Everyone blamed her for this, including the people who witnessed the incident with their own eyes and who know well that she was a victim. However, they were blaming her because she is a woman and she should not be so dare to fight with a man in the street, even if this man harassed her.
However, Noha won in the end the perpetrator was sentenced to three years in prison! The brave Noha encouraged other, ‘weaker’ women to take a stance and made men think hundreds of times before they approach a woman to harass, either physically or verbally. For sure, they do not want to spend years in jail for a pleasure that leads to no real sexual satisfaction.
The problem of sexual harassment in Egypt has to do with the general mentality of the society. Today’s Egypt is infected with two main diseases: religious extremism and patriarchy. Unfortunately, the only victim for both is the woman, who is always burdened with keeping the ‘honor’ of the family.
The religious nature of the Egyptian people, which once was one of their best characteristics, turned into a catastrophe when it grew – due to different political and economic influences – into religious extremism. The woman under this extremist society is always viewed as a sexual object, created only to please the man and satisfy his physical needs. Extremists always fail to view women as real human beings who are 100 percent equal to men.
At the same time, this trend of extremism puts people under physical and psychological depression and encourages men to think all the time that whenever they interact with a woman they will lose control over their physical desires. For them, the woman is a devil that should not mingle with men unless covered from head to toe; wears no perfume; and preferably never goes out of her home in order not to tempt men and spread vice in society!
“Do not blame me, you should blame her. She encouraged me to harass her.†You will hear this sentence from most of the men practicing harassment. They usually justify their actions by saying that the woman they are harassing is not covered, or wearing hijab, or she wears makeup, etc. Blaming women for the mistakes of men.
For a man who embraces such foolish ideas and looks down at women as a sexual object who forces him to lose his strength in controlling his desires, sexual harassment of women is always viewed as a right, not a mistake.
BM
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Bravo Dalia,
I read an article by Safiya Mahmoud on the same subject, and both of you pin pointed the problem. I would like to add that the majority of Egyptian males do not understand the difference between being a Man (Ragoul) or just a male (Zakar). Our males are weak and incapable of controlling their behavior, thinking that our women are fair game to them. They don’t have the courage to face their inner weaknesses to fight temptation. They fooled themselves in believing they are true believers (religious). It is cowardliness from our male-dominated society to continue to blame women for their ill behavior. Actually they lost the ability to fight in general, and accepted the current miserable domestic situation; there will be no better tomorrow.
What happened to our courageous Noha, any follow up report?
Dalia,
Nice post ….
Street sexual harassment is a disgusting behavior and the Egyptian society must find a way to deal with this phenomena
The issue that most writers are not addressing is sexual harassment in the work place, few years back, I had chance to work in a large American company in Cairo for more than a year, few weeks to the job I found that the majority of the American and Egyptian executives have relationships with female employees around the company, sure, they called it “dating†or “friendshipâ€, but most of these cases had a direct reporting link between the parties.
When I raised the issue among the American executives, I was astonished with the answer that Egypt does not have a sexual harassment laws and I should enjoy my time in Egypt.
The more interesting that some females around the company expected these behaviors from the executives and the expected to be rewarded for it in form of job career advances or job salaries and they felt bad to be directly paid as they are not a street girls………!
I am sure the multinationals are not the only place in Egypt where this happen, but I think the Egyptian law should provide strong protection and cover for female who dare to say NO to their managers.
Mohajer Masry
[...] via The nightmare of sexual harassment in Egypt | Bikya Masr. [...]
[...] struggle to protect women and secure their rights in Egypt. Dalia Ziada writes that shocking incidents of sexual harassment are common on the streets of Cairo. Before a particularly cruel incident in 2006, sexual [...]
Hhmmm – let’s see: “…They usually justify their actions by saying that the woman they are harassing is not covered, or wearing hijab, or she wears makeup, …”
Aha!!! While approx. 90 % of all Muslim women are in one form or another covered today (be it the hijab or the nakab or that they wear modest islamic dresses without headcover) approx. 83 % of all women are harassed if the statistics are more or less correct. Even if one assumes an error margin of +/- 20% the figures don’t tally with these (stupid and macho) statements.
And to Mohajer Masry:
New laws don’t help if the government is not willing to see to it that they are not only implemented but also rigorously applied accross the society. And that’s where the system is lacking because it is unwilling to do this minimum effort towards the protection of its citizens.
“20 years ago the girls and women where not veiled, they were wearing mini-skirts and spaghetti tops, they walked the streets alone and were not harassed on this scale. What happened?? In my opinion the only difference is that the government took its hands off and discipline has disapeared from the streets. And this applies to every walk of life – like it or not.”
Thanks for the post, Dalia.
Its hard to imagine why we as a society demand respect and get really upset when someone messes with ‘our honor’, and yet we can’t even provide the basic human dignity and honor to more than half of our population.
At this point I think it is our collective responsibility to keep speaking up until the government realizes it has to take some serious steps to punish and crack down on all forms of sexual harassment.
Keep it coming!
Is it not interesting? I have asked this question already a number of times in these forums – yet it seems nobody is RWA (ready, willing and able) to answer it! Strange, isn’t it?
“20 years ago the girls and women where not veiled, they were wearing mini-skirts and spaghetti tops, they walked the streets alone and were not harassed on this scale. What happened??”
Is it because everybody is too embarassed to face reality?
Dear Dalia
I would love to hear your ideas about the following – you stated in your article:
“The problem of sexual harassment in Egypt has to do with the general mentality of the society. Today’s Egypt is infected with two main diseases: religious extremism and patriarchy.”
“The woman under this extremist society is always viewed as a sexual object, created only to please the man and satisfy his physical needs.”
You put the blame squarely on religious extremism and patriarchy while you totally blank out the real and main reasons for the sexual harassment of women. Well, I guess one can argue this point as it is a question of view point as well as a question of interest in terms of what you want to achieve with your article.
But I would be very interested to read your opinion about the phenomenon of sexual harassment and rape in the open, secular and non-extremist (hahaha, good joke) Europe and America incl. South America as well as in black Africa. After all these continents are pre-dominantly Christian. Even (jewish) Israel is not immune but there they have at least a number of so-called rape centers set-up where women get help. I mention Israel because it is an equally theocratic and extreme society as we start seeing in a number of islamic countries.
And as I keep saying: “20 years ago the girls and women where not veiled, they were wearing mini-skirts and spaghetti tops, they walked the streets alone and were not harassed on this scale. What happened??†And mind you – in case you try to answer my question – this society has always been deeply religious and patriarchic … so nothing new on this side. But the other side of the coin – that’s what I would love to hear.
~*~*~
“For a man who embraces such foolish ideas and looks down at women as a sexual object who forces him to lose his strength in controlling his desires, sexual harassment of women is always viewed as a right, not a mistake.”
This does not apply only to Egyptian men this applies to such kind of scumbags worldwide! Why is it that the writers for BM try to make this sexual harassment a unique thing of the Egyptian society?? What is the idea behind this?? I would highly recommend you have a look at the worldwide statistics.
Eleonora 29 November 2009 9:00 AM ,
Dear Eleonora #10 , you say it all, there is NO word after your word.
Keep good thinking and thought.
I hope all people in Egypt and middle east to wak-up and to see what is going on around them, what the chalange for feeding them selfes and how to grow them own food”start by WEAT&CORN”, to start see (5G+1) and double standerd with iran Nuclear Energy.
I hope all Kings&presidents PULL-OUT all them mony from Swiss banks after what is gong on there!!!!!!!
I hope to start educat & reEducation our selfes and pick from the west what is work and good with the culture and to emproving the life, NOT low life stylesh or fashon or bad habits ((Garbege the west)).
* G5+1 allready having planing for you guyes for exampe:
1- how to keep you poor and hungry.
2- how to keep you fighting all the time and whom, when, whare to switch the wore.
3-how to keep you behind all the time and creat conflect with miss trust between the goverment and th people using black-male when to used this tactic to them own interst.
4- and many …..you see it or you hear it.
One question concerning this issue:
What would Muhammed do?
~The Infidel Alliance
men are the seed of satan,women are his target just as with eve the first woman. end of story
.
Let’s look to Muhammed for his ancient, timeless guidance:
Muslim (4:1039) – “Aisha said to Muhammad: ‘You have made us equal to the dogs and the asses’”
Hmmm….what should we make of child bride Aisha’s admonishment to the ‘holy’ prophet?
~The Infidel Alliance