Sexual Harrassments in Egypt. The art of bursting bubbles!
Lobna Khairy
November 25, 2008
While thinking of a man´s role as the protector of the family, a sarcastic smile appears on my face. How funny is this?! The man, the protector, is at the same time the threat and the offender!
Preposterous girls!
Upon mentioning the sexual harassment issue, everyone seems to have something to say about it. Some people blamed girls for their hard to miss provocative dress code while others reasoned the fact that in the 50´s women roamed the streets of Cairo in sleekly sleeveless extra short dresses, showing off their alluring skin and a twist of a cat walk with nobody to bother them. Now, here comes the disaster…
Despite this very logic-based girls´ redemption from this "testosterone revolution", people still believed girls had something to do with it one way or another. And when all the blames had no other destination but fall over men´s head, millions rushed in the scenes to defend the honors of men. Faulting the unsanitary conditions we, as in all Egyptians, have to face including the economical conditions, unemployment and accordingly the old age men are forced to get married at, which makes "getting hold on things" impaired!
The likes of "Noha Roshdy"
You can hear people babbling about their blind faith in women´s cowardice, claiming that harassments happen all the time but the only difference is that women now can go to the police and report that their right as a human being has been stolen by an abnormal person.
And along came Noha Roshy causing all pens to dry and all mouths to drop. Believing in her right as a human being and a woman to enjoy a reasonable radius of personal space, Noha filled a report against Sherif Gomaa and created a masterpiece with her uncanny determination to be the first to put a harasser behind bars for three years to come in late October 2008 .
As a resulting echo, Egypt was split into two parties, those who hailed the convection and those who condemned it.
Leaving things at that will definitely be a bizarre behavior, thus there were those who adopted digging Noha´s history as a life purpose.
Saying she´s Israeli, she filled a fake report, she wanted fame, etc…
Who cares!! Consider her a tourist being subjected to such degrading actions; doesn´t she have the right to speak?! Sexual harassment is an act of crime regardless of age, sex, nationality and religion. Period
Just campaign it!
You might regard the media as one of the main contributors to the ruthless situation we are suffering today. No one can blame you for that, for starters take a look at the trillion stations promoting the "new norms of living" carefree attitude, sexy wear, how to look sexy, act sexy and be sexy, all the "necessary scenes" being paraded in front of everyone to see and feast their eyes. On the other hand, we have to admit the spread of campaigns between 27terem nasak "Respect yourself" Kolena Laila "We all are Laila" and men 7aqeq "it´s your right" campaigns that you can spot everywhere, promoting human rights and specifically women rights to speak up whenever subjected to any sort of injustice. Thus I believe that there has been and still there is much attention given to the harassments issue, building on the necessary tools needed to survive such horrendous situations, what to do when subjected to the such, a clear description of similar circumstances have been provided as well and from my opinion useless debates in an attempt to figure out the sole responsible for the currents. Thus I believe that this time for the very few firsts in the history of our country, the "clean" media has done its part and so did the volunteers with the campaigning fever smearing every part of Egypt.
So, did things change?! Let´s review the facts…
Sometimes storms go without a trace!
By the time the parading craze was cooling off, it was time for the predators to rise up like a phoenix from the ashes to reclaim their thrones. It was disappointing for I personally expected change, tremendous change actually, where offenders will simply back off and scurry to their holes in fear of the 3 years sentence but it all seems like a water under the bridge, a misunderstanding or a problem that will be resolved in no time. And so it happened only a few days after the smashing three years sentence to Sherif Gomaa that a 23 year old woman was harassed by a 19 year old builder at the 6th of October city at night. While she was walking with her 3 year old nephew, she heard the footsteps of a stranger behind with every intention to sexually harass her. And not so long after, the infamous Dr. Shaimaa Adel case was exploded. She, a kind hearted 30 year old woman, lost her life in defense of her honor. After the 18 year old janitor´s son confused her benevolence for attraction that he waited around till she´s alone in her home to sneak in to have what´s not his to take and when he ouldn´t get that to happen he shed her life away with 17 stabs!. Endless stories could be listed here, but the perception remains the same, people still believe that women are weak and will never want to descend their honor. Or maybe what happened with the offender, the verdict and all hasn´t sunk in yet for them to regard it as a reality. Nonetheless, I can´t deny the effect Noha Roshdy left in women, she gave them the extra push they needed to fight for their right and that yes, in Egypt, "men" are punished as well. Her, being an israili or an alien doesn´t make much of a difference as long as the offender was put where he belonged.
Egypt says!
In the end, it all comes down to moralities, being a girl makes me a target and forces me to watch out for every passing by.
So, are girls really to blame? In my opinion yes and no; yes, because there are girls who seek the attention and get it all wrong ways, and no because:
a. "Properly veiled" girls have been receiving that "attention" two Eids ago as well.
b. Women covered up in Neqab are being harassed and annoyed in the streets
c. Unveiled girls driving their cars in winter which means very conservative clothes, have guys trying to open their doors and throw themselves at them.
d. Regardless of what we are wearing, we have the right to live and walk in peace
Are guys to blame? Yes and no… Forgive me for I´ll start with the yeses!
Yes because:
a. They don´t want to accept girls as equal citizens
b. They consider harassment as a fun game.
c. They are too full of ego to imagine that such things can happen to their female siblings
d. They don´t care about wrong and right as long as it serves their "needs"
e. The dearly believe in the guys will be guys.
And no because, there are decent guys left out there and believe it or not, it all goes back to their parents and their upbringing.
Eventually, when the dust settles, we all hope for the resurrection of a much civilized nation. But until then, keep attending those self-defense classes and keep carrying your whichever defense tool for it´s not that safe out there yet…