LAST month, while shopping in a mall in Cairo, a young woman was approached by an older man, who insisted on taking her out, she says. The two argued as they walked towards an exit, where she stopped and gestured for him to leave. At that point he turned and hit her twice in the face.
The scene was captured by a security camera, but the police seemed uninterested. After the video was posted online, it went viral. In telling her story to the press, the victim faced more resistance. Reham Saeed, a (female) television host, asked: “Do you think you were dressed appropriately?” She then aired old photos of the victim in a bikini, which may have been stolen from her phone.
At the time of the attack the victim was wearing jeans and a sleeveless top, but that hardly matters. Egyptian women, even those in niqabs, face harassment regardless of their attire. A survey by the UN in 2013 found that a startling 99% of Egyptian women are victims; 83% said they feel insecure in the street.
But the story also reflects progress in the fight against sexual harassment. Conservative attitudes towards women, fuelled by religion and patriarchal norms, lead many Egyptians, including some politicians, to belittle the problem. Ms Saeed, though, faced a backlash. After a Twitter campaign to take her off the air, several companies stopped sponsoring her show, which was then...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1j9yUDV
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