60 percent of women harassed on daily basis – Cairo

Women walk on the streets of the Han Al-halili district in Cairo. Image: Peter Snelling

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Two years on from those horrific events in downtown Cairo, and despite the few instances of activism that brought false hope for change, women complain about the same issues, according to the ECWR study. The statistics reveal a difficult reality; 60 percent of women answered that they are harassed every day. This includes both verbal and physical abuse.

Making matters complicated, approximately 70 percent of the men surveyed admitted to participating in harassing women, not taking matters seriously and even blaming women.

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

Are women in Egypt not dressed appropriately? “That is funny,” began Dola, a 55-year-old mother of two young women when asked about modesty in Egypt’s busy streets. “Of course he is talking about another nation. If you walk down the street you will see the truth: women are modest. Sure, you may see a small percentage of young college girls who like to dress in fashion, but that is it,” she added.

“Women with headscarves are harassed all the time, too,” the mother argued.

“At 15, I was groped as I was performing the rites of the hajj pilgrimage at Mecca, the holiest site for Muslims. Every part of my body was covered except for my face and hands. I’d never been groped before and burst into tears, but I was too ashamed to explain to my family what had happened,” said journalist Mona Eltahawy in a July 27, 2008 article for the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.

Foreign women in Cairo, according to the ECWR study, have an even more difficult situation. 98 percent of foreigners are harassed, and in some reported instances, more violently than locals.

Asma, a 29-year-old masters student retells the story of an Italian friend. “She was walking in downtown in the afternoon wearing cotton sporty pants and a t-shirt when a man came from behind and set part of her bottom on fire with a lighter and sprinted off,” the Egyptian student says of her friend. The Italian woman had third degree burns and “a wish to not come back here (to Egypt) again.”

The ECWR warned that harassing foreign women would lead to the loss of millions of pounds. A number of foreigners said they would never return to Egypt. 14 percent of all foreign women said they would either never return to Egypt or tell their friends not to visit, which could put a damper on the country’s number one source of income: tourism.

Despite the report and documented harassment, little has been done to prevent the situation from worsening.

Nehad Abu Komsan, the chairwoman of the ECWR, is optimistic on the future. 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 their fault.”

Komsan argues that this has helped Egyptian society understand what is going on and will help to solve this social issue. An important aspect of her work is helping to develop society as a whole, not only within the activist community.

“It is not important to be a woman figure or a women defender. Women are an essential part of society, so as long as they are active in different fields they will defend their rights and other people’s rights,” she adds.

She pointed to recently appointed Islamic notary, known as a ‘maazun’ in Arabic, Amal Soliman. The lawyer is the first female maazun in the Islamic world’s history, and the 32-year-old mother does not want to be seen as an activist despite the attention her new job has brought.

“Sure, this was expected, although I didn’t think it would take this long,” said Soliman, who holds a master’s degree in law from Zagazig University. The Ministry of Justice has yet to give her the green light to begin work after months of waiting.

Like many obstacles in Egypt, men are guarding the entrance to the male dominated field, but Soliman expects to begin work before the year’s end.

She also has numerous law and criminal justice diplomas, which gave her the credentials to beat out 10 male candidates for the vacancy in her hometown of Qanayit just north of Cairo.

Amal Soliman didn’t believe gender would be a factor in the position when she applied, although she has long since gotten over that shock.

“I never thought that my gender would be a big deal, at least not as big of a deal it has become,” she added.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvNoOmSUHag?rel=0]

The streets of Cairo continue to be unsafe for women in spite of media exposure and activist attempts to draw attention to ongoing problems. This video is a Women News Network – WNN video production by WNN Cairo correspondent, Joseph Mayton.

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Additional reports on this topic:

Harvard Law Review, Street Harassment and the Informal Ghettoization of Women, Cynthia Grant Bowman, January 1993

ECWR research study, Clouds in Egypt’s Sky – Sexual Harassment: From Verbal Harassment to Rape, Rasha Mohammad Hassan with Dr. Aliya Shoukry

The American University in Cairo, Gender and Street Harassment: Women’s Access and Claims to Public Space

Passing By – Gender and Public Harassment by Carol Brooks Gardner, Univ. of California Press c1995

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WNN correspondents Joseph Mayton and Manar Ammar have reported on this story from Cairo, Egypt. Manar Ammar is a freelance Egyptian journalist who has worked with All Headline News and Daily News Egypt. Reports by Joseph Mayton appear regularly in the Middle East Times, The Middle East Magazine and other region-focused publications.

Lys Anzia, of WNN, has also contributed to this special report.

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