WUNRN
Egypt - Women Use Social Media to Reveal Public Sexual Harassment & Expose Harassers
Girls walk past members of the riot police
standing guard near a protest against sexual harassment in front of the opera
house in Cairo, June 14, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih)
Author: Ayah Aman*- January 16, 2015
Egyptian women have been using a number of
hashtags — among them #Idon’tFeelSafeOnTheStreet, #AntiHarassment and
#ExposeHarasser — on social networking sites to speak up about the daily sexual
harassment they experience. These campaigns are part of an effort to expose
harassers and break the silence surrounding their crimes, which are haunting
women in Egypt. Women have tweeted myriad incidents along with advocating the
courage to expose and confront harassers.
With
Egyptian police quite indifferent to incidents of sexual harassment, women are
taking the initiative to expose sexual harassers online.
Nancy Atieh, 20, published a post on Facebook
Jan. 12 in an attempt to expose a man in his 50s who regularly takes the bus
from a station downtown, during which time he molests females. She took and
posted a picture of him to warn her colleagues who transit the same station.
"Photographing harassers and exposing them is the best way to confront
them,” she wrote.
Haitham Tabi, an Egyptian journalist, called
on women to tweet their concerns using the hashtag #Idon’tFeelSafeOnTheStreet,
after a number of reports he wrote on the public harassment of women. “Let
people know that your concerns about walking on the streets are real and not
exaggerated,” he told Al-Monitor of his encouragement to women. Tabi also said,
“Calling on girls to talk about their suffering was a way to challenge those
who are in denial about widespread sexual harassment.”
He said people should be careful since the
situation has degenerated, stressing, “Women are greatly threatened in Egypt.”
Tabi emphasized the need for the state to protect women and make them feel
safe. “The state, which is fighting terrorism, has to protect girls on the
streets,” he said.
On Dec. 8, a 19-year-old woman jumped into
the Nile from the Qasr al-Nil bridge and drowned in a bid to escape a harasser
who had been following her. No passersby intervened to protect her.
Eyewitnesses said that the offender threatened to throw nitric acid on her.
Former interim President Adly Mansour issued
a decree June 6, 2014, amending some provisions of the penal code to deal with sexual harassment.
Days later, on June 10, a woman suffered severe burns after she was sexually abused in Tahrir
Square during the inauguration of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
The Egyptian penal code
includes three articles relating to sexual harassment. They stipulate the
issuance of sanctions for crimes committed by force or threat or involving
obscene acts toward women. In such instances, harassers face six months to five
years in prison, in addition to a fine of up to 50,000 Egyptian pounds
($6,991).
No law in Egypt, however, addresses sexual
harassment as a social problem, and the punishments do not suit the level of
physical, sexual or verbal abuse. Moreover, the laws do not clearly state
implementation mechanisms or compel the state to provide security for women.
Egyptian official and security institutions
have stressed through the media that they have taken action to address the
phenomenon of sexual harassment against women, including creating departments in the police force
to combat it. Despite this, many women have complained of the ill-treatment
they received at police stations when they tried to lodge complaints against
harassers.
Amani Abboud, 26, told Al-Monitor, “I was
verbally and physically abused by a man about 50 years of age in a public
transport vehicle in the city center and in front of a police station.” She
said, “Judging by the traffic in the street, I thought I could expose the
harasser, so I tried to scream and pull him toward the police station. To my
surprise, the police refused to issue a citation against him.” Abboud stated,
“The officer told me that a citation would be of no benefit to me and that it
was better for me to go home without causing problems.”
Amani later tried to lodge her complaint with
human rights organizations in Egypt. “I have given up on being granted my right
to police protection,” she said.
Fathi Farid, coordinator of the I Saw Harassment initiative, told Al-Monitor, “The
laws in Egypt have failed to deter sexual harassment against women.” According
to him, “The law that is supposed to prohibit sexual harassment should be
amended. The amendments should include a clear definition of what an
anti-harassment law is as well as protect witnesses and informants from media
defamation.”
Not many people have high hopes of being able
to rely on the Egyptian police to fight sexual harassment in the streets. “We
cannot trust the anti-harassment division in the regular police when the person
in charge of this department believes that harassment is only triggered by
revealing female attire,” Farid said.
A Dec. 26 report by I Saw Harassment on a
case of sexual harassment 100 days into Sisi's term pointed to the involvement
of some police officers and administrators
in violations against women. At the time, the most recent such incident had
occurred Dec. 21 and involved the rape of a university student in a police car.
Said Sadiq, a professor of political
sociology, told Al-Monitor, “The lack of the security and judiciary performing
their role and the weakness of the concept of respect for personal freedoms are
both behind the exacerbation of the problem in Egyptian society.”
Sadiq described sexual harassment, an act of
violence against women, as a “complicated issue” in Egypt. “No solutions can be
found as long as the official institutions do not realize the seriousness of
the issue,” he said.
Campaigns and initiatives are being launched
to address sexual harassment in Egypt, and training sessions are being held for
women to protect themselves on the streets. Many women are also daring to speak
publicly, on social networking sites, about what they have experienced. The
political establishment must act to protect women from the daily violence they
are being exposed to since the state's attention does not appear to be focused
on fighting harassment.
*Ayah Aman is an Egyptian journalist for Al-Shorouk
specializing in Africa and the Nile Basin, Turkey and Iran, and internal
Egyptian social issues.