CAIRO: Another year, same results. On the day the world campaigns for the elimination of violence against women, Egyptian women continue to struggle with the same issues that have been fomenting in the country for years. Sexual harassment, violence and inequality are not only part of Egyptian society, activists say the situation is not getting any better despite the numerous campaigns and efforts made by women’s groups in the country.

The international campaign hopes to create a 16-day period where the publicizing of women’s issues, statistics of violence against women and a global discussion over how to deal with these problems will create societies willing to open themselves up to the hard facts of reality. In Egypt, women’s advocates are already pushing hard toward these ends, but they face an uphill battle of harassment, stigma and a future that doesn’t look so bright.

Sexual Harassment

Last year, Noha Rushdi Saleh, made headlines in the fight against harassment and violence against women when she went to the police to press charges against a man who had repeatedly groped her on the street, but initially, she was turned away. The police told her that if she wanted to file charges against the man she would have to bring him to the station herself. Saleh, 27, refused to give in, returning to the scene and sitting on the hood of the perpetrator’s vehicle until he was taken to a local police station and charged with assaulting the young woman.

The decision to press charges paid off when a Cairo court sentenced Sherif Goma’a to three years in prison and a fine of 5,001 Egyptian pounds ($895). Many activists across the country view the court’s ruling as something that could be a watershed in the struggle to combat sexual harassment.

Saleh, a filmmaker also known as Noha Al Ustazi, was walking down a Heliopolis – a northern Cairo suburb – street when Goma’a drove up next to her and continuously groped her, including grabbing her breasts.

Nehad Abu Komsan, the chairwoman of the ECWR, was optimistic that the ruling would bring a better future for Egypt’s streets. She believes more women are willing to speak out about their experiences.

“The problem is that women did not have the ability to talk,” she begins, “and they feel the shame and were afraid to talk, but now they are more free to talk and they know that they are not alone and this is not her fault.”

The conviction comes at a turbulent time for women’s rights in the country. For the second time in three years, on October 2, 2008, over 100 young men and boys attacked women in the streets of a middle-class Cairo neighborhood.

According to eyewitness accounts, around 150 boys and young men attacked women on the street, ripping at female bystanders’ clothes in the country’s worst sexual harassment incident since the October 24, 2006, downtown Cairo attacks.

Women reported groping, inappropriate touching and even worse. Veiled women had their clothes torn off by the attackers who once again used the mob scene to create widespread fear and terror. One woman who wears the niqab – the veil that covers the entire face – reported men grapping at it in an attempt to tear it off her face.

But, unlike the 2006 assaults, the Egyptian government and ministry of interior did not deny that it happened. Instead, they took a somewhat proactive role in ending the mob from continuing unabated.

After receiving a phone call from the area, police converged on the active Gameat Al Dowal street in Mohandiseen, arresting dozens of young people in the country’s first attempt to stem the tide of harassment in the country.

In the end, a handful of boys were charged, but only one received a 6-month jail sentence.

Spinsters

Physical violence is not the only issue facing women in Egypt. On a daily basis, unmarried women have been forced to deal with the stereotyping of being a spinster. Youmna Mokhtar is a young Egyptian journalist who became fed up with the use of this word in everyday life. So she founded the social group called “Spinsters for change” – now defunct – which aimed to educate people on the use of “A’anis,” or spinster.

In Arabic, “A’anis” has at least three meanings – none of which have a relationship to its understood social meaning. The first is: a dull tree branch, the second is: one who looks at the mirror more often and the thirds is: a strong female camel. In Egypt and across the region, socially, it refers to a woman who unmarried.

“I started the group to initiate a dialog between women to discuss how we can change that social look,” said Mohktar. The group was outspoken against the social labeling and ill treatment of unmarried women. Although the word is commonplace in colloquial Egyptian Arabic, it remains a derogatory word.

Women feel the negative attachments to the word, which they argue attracts rumors, suspicion and pitying looks, as if asking; “what’s wrong with her if?” if she hasn’t married. But, with the average marriage age continuing to rise, Mokhtar believes it is time to evaluate how language plays a role in societal perceptions.

“Although the group is called “A’anis for change,” I am against the label, yet we used it to name the group [because] it is the term people use,” Mokhtar explained. “First, we thought of calling it “girls for change,” but it was not going to deliver the same meaning,” she added with a chuckle.

“There are more important things than the name, it is the pattern of behaviors that comes with it,” Mokhtar continued.

The Future

Saleh’s case and the Eid incidents have sparked a debate among lawmakers, human rights lawyers and activists, who are in the process of hammering out a new draft law for Parliament that will issue harsher penalties for those perpetrating the crimes. The draft law was supposed to be completed and passed by Parliament earlier this year, but still, months later, nothing has been achieved.

The question remains, however, whether a new law will do anything to end this social problem. Youssri Mohamed Bayoumi, a Muslim Brotherhood Member of Parliament, question whether any new law will be enforced.

“We have seen a new traffic law implemented, but nothing has really happened, so why do will believe that a new harassment law will get the job done,” the MP said at a roundtable discussion with policymakers on Tuesday evening.

Not only Bayoumi’s negative view of the law, but even members of Parliament have voiced their concern, but not over the law, but on how women dress.

Mohsen Reda, an Egyptian member of Parliament, argued that women should be dressed more modestly as “a lot our youth can’t afford marriage, so it is only normal for some harassment to take place.”

A fully veiled woman seems to be dressed modestly, women argue, disagreeing with sentiments that avoid placing blame on men.

“Of course he is talking about another nation. If you walk down the street you will see the truth: women are modest,” said a retired mother of two women.

Keep advertising off Bikya Masr - donate $1 to allow this to be possible