'Criminalise sexual violence', says new harassment study

92% of women said they had suffered some kind of sexual harassment With the subject of sexual harassment and violence against women coming to the fore in Egypt, the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women (ADEW) organised a roundtable discussion entitled Say No to Harassment on Sunday. The participants' final recommendations included a penalty of prison time as well as a fine for sexual harassment.
ADEW chief Iman Bibars opened the discussion by noting that Egyptian society is suffering from "moral degradation" with "relatively alien" phenomena becoming rife. Bibars added that the association believes that observing this phenomenon is integral to its developmental role with women.
Bibars spoke about an ADEW study of 500 women aged 12 – 40 living in shanty towns revealed the threat which sexual harassment poses to women and, especially, girls. According to the story, 94 percent of women and children feel unsafe in the street, with some afraid to leave their homes alone, while 92 percent of the sample population had already suffered from harassment.
"It has become such a pervasive phenomenon, it is now an epidemic that threatens the security and safety of Egyptian society as a whole, not just women, especially after the shameless harassment and physical assaults which has been conducted by organised groups against women protestors in Tahrir Square."
The activist said the attacks on women in protests "were initially aimed at driving women away from Tahrir Square, then it became about driving them away from public life entirely."
Former MP and Reform and Development Party founder Mohammed Anwar Sadat noted that sexual harassment is not itself a novel development, claiming that "moral degradation" was behind the problem rather than law. "There are a lot of legislations against harassment, but they don't see the light of day," he said.
Muslim preacher Dr Malak Zarar referenced prominent women in Islam, Hagar and Mariam, arguing that society has become "blind" to women's place in Islam and is threatening the rights awarded her in Islam "including the right to be treated as a human being."
"Women are not being violated politically, socially, and legally and no-one defends them."
Father Dawood Naguib, the vicar of a Cairo church, pointed his finger at hardline TV preachers who "distorted the image of women and Islam" and said these figures "need psychological help." Naguib, who hailed Dr Zarar as an enlightened influence who "represent Islam as we've always known it," said mosques and churches should band together to protest society from "moral collapse."
Director Inaam Mohammed Ali pointed out that illiteracy, unemployment, unsound methods of education, and young men's inability to marry due to lack of means are also behind the phenomenon of sexual harassment.
"The battle is first and foremost between progress and backwardness," she said, pointing that the media can be both a positive and negative influence. She cited the example of popular Turkish drama Fatma, which begins with the rape of the eponymous character which sets events rolling leading to the rapists' financial empire being burned down, as a warning to wood-be rapists.
Hussein el-Shafei, who manages anti-harassment volunteers working for an NGO, said: "We need to reverse society's culture and see women as human beings unlike the way reactionaries wish them to be." El-Shafei also demanded that politicians work to raise awareness of sexual harassment and women's right to freedom, security, and bodily safety.
The discussion's recommendations included an enforced law criminalising sexual harassment and penalising it by both jail time and a fine; raising awareness among state officials as well as the public; instilling social attitudes that respect women; and NGOs, revolutionary movements, and political forces coming together to face this phenomenon.