Is new law enough to handle Egypt’s sexual harassment problem?

Heba Hesham – Bikya Masr news – Wednesday, 6 April, 2011

Women who walk on the streets of Cairo still face sexual harassment daily. Image: Bikya Masr

CAIRO: According to a survey by the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR), service workers, housewives and professionals alike all report experiencing sexual harassment in Egypt.

40 percent of all respondents reported inappropriate touching, followed by verbal harassment at 38 percent. Moreover, for around 30 percent of the respondents, harassment comes in daily doses. Only 12 percent of respondents reported to police when they are harassed, uttering their total lack of confidence in the legal system to protect them from the perpetrators.

Other statistics by ECWR stated that sexual harassment in Egypt is experienced by 98 percent of foreign women visitors and 83 percent of Egyptian women. Shocking, some 62 percent of Egyptian men admitted harassing women and 53 percent of men accused women with “asking for it non-verbally.”. .

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