Egyptian Girls fight Sexual Harassment the Karate Kid Way

Kelly (a friend of mine) just sent me this article ... and yeah .. it's about time!

June 24, 2009
Letter from Egypt

Covered Up, and Harassed, in Cairo
By DANIEL WILLIAMS

CAIRO — At the Embaba Youth Center in Cairo, teenage girls in headscarves that signify Islamic modesty whack at each other with deft karate moves.

It’s fun, they say, but also a defense against nasty boys and men on the Egyptian capital’s mean streets.

“No one is going to touch me when I can hit them real hard,” said Nada Gamal Saad, 16.

The training is a grassroots reaction to a problem Cairo women’s groups say is growing: public verbal insults, groping and even rape. Such harassment contrasts with emerging signs of female political advancement in Egypt and other countries across the Middle East.

“Changes for women are surface improvements,” said Madiha el-Safty, a sociology professor at the American University in Cairo. “There is a deeper cultural problem: male hostility toward women who want to do more than stay at home.”

In his June 4 speech in Cairo, President Barack Obama said that women’s rights constituted one of six friction points between the United States and the Muslim world. “I am convinced that our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons,” he said. “I respect those women who choose to live their lives in traditional roles, but it should be their choice.”

There are some baby-steps of progress. Last month, four women in Kuwait were elected to the country’s 50-member Parliament, four years after women were first given the vote. Saudi Arabia pledged to the United Nations this month to end the requirement that women get permission from a male relative to work, travel, study or marry.

In Iran, Zahra Rahnavard became the first candidate’s wife to participate in her husband’s campaign when former Prime Minister Mir Hussein Moussavi ran for president against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on June 12. Mr. Moussavi lost and has claimed the voting was rigged.

On June 14, Egypt’s lower house of Parliament agreed to provide women with 64 guaranteed new seats in future elections. Eight women currently sit in the 454-member assembly. The government’s Justice Ministry is also reviewing a proposed law to expand a statute that prohibits unspecified “physical sexual offenses.” The new measure would detail actions considered sexual harassment, including public indecency and any kind of sexual touching.

Still, chronic offensive behavior suggests the horizon for equality in Egypt — where government statistics say that women make up about 25 percent of the work force — may be far off. Eighty-three percent of Egyptians and 98 percent of foreigners in a survey of 1,010 women last year said they were insulted or groped on Cairo streets.

“We’re going backwards,” said Rasha Hassan, a researcher at the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights, an independent civil-liberties monitoring group in Cairo that conducted the survey.

A half-dozen girls in the working-class district of Embaba practice karate at the youth center, even though it cannot afford mats.

“At least, this will help me to look confident and maybe keep bad people away,” said Nourhan Nasser Sayed, 16.

Since March, Community Times, a monthly Cairo magazine, has run testimonies from women about being harassed. In the June edition, an Egyptian said she was walking with a female friend in Maadi, an upscale southern suburb, when a man reached out from a car and grabbed her companion’s buttocks.

Fifteen sexual harassment cases have been filed since October, when a man was sentenced to three years in jail for grabbing a woman’s breast on the street. The conviction was Egypt’s first on harassment charges, Ms. Hassan said. “Before, no one would bother” going to court, she said. That case “helped encourage people who want to speak out.”

Ms. Safty recalls that women wore sundresses and miniskirts no more than two decades ago in Cairo. Now most sport long sleeves, trousers and headscarves. Even the scarves, mandated by some Muslims as a sign of piety, are no defense: Seventy-two percent of women in the survey reported wearing them when the inappropriate behavior occurred.

“Our grandmothers had more freedom than we do, without the harassment,” Ms. Safty said.

She blames the change partly on frustrated young men who lack jobs and money and get their kicks insulting women. Another influence is “wayward” Islamic teaching that defines women as sexual objects to be confined at home, she said.

Mohamed Nasef, spokesman for the government’s National Council for Women, said that reports of harassment were “exaggerated.” Anyway, “it happens everywhere,” he said.

His office is headed by Suzanne Mubarak, wife of President Hosni Mubarak, who played down incidents that emerged in November, saying “Egyptian men always respect Egyptian women.”

Down the hall from Mr. Nasef, Samah Said had a different perspective. “There’s really a regression here,” noted Ms. Said, who runs the council’s department for combating violence against women. “Gallantry is dead.”

Do Egyptian men care? Last week, a reporter approached a group of eight who were making vulgar catcalls to a woman boarding a taxi in Tahrir Square in central Cairo. Asked what they were doing, they responded that they were just admiring the lady. (Bloomberg)

Daniel Williams is a Bloomberg News columnist.

Asser's Harassers - Egyptian blogger violated

Asser Yasser is an Egyptian female blogger who recently moved to Mokattam area with her family. Her maid complained of how she got harassed on the street on her way to or from Asser's home. Her 15 year old niece who lives with them complained of the violating words that she gets bombarded with on her way to and fom school. And one day Asser made a horrible mistake and decided to walk to a kiosk 200 meters away from home to buy her kids some candy. How dare she walk in the street? How dare she leave her car behind?

On her way home, some teenagers in parked cars that reeked of hash used cuss words, followed her, tried to grab her, encircled her with their vehicles, and the poor woman and her niece felt trapped. People looked from their balconies and no one lifted a finger to help her. She called the police from her mobile phone as she stood there in utter terror and shortly after officer Mohab came to her rescue. He was almost run down by the fleeing cars. One guy stayed behind and said that he was not involved and that he was only watching from his car. Asser Identified him as one of the harassers and they all went to the station to file a formal report.

It got more interesting when the father of the 19 year old harasser snaped at Asser telling her to pick on someone her age. The father did not see or realize the gravity of what his son did. Now the father, the officers, and many others are begging Asser to drop the charges for the sake of the "poor kid's" future.

Bloggers tell her not to ....
Memebers of Kolena Laila tell her not to ...
I personally tell her not to .... it is her right ... it is our right to walk in the street feeling some sort of security ... the harasser and his friends did not think of their futures when they were getting high, when they violated her, or when she begged them to spare someone the age of their mother. No Asser ... do not give in to pressure

Global Voices Online - Updates

GLOBAL VOICES - MARWA RAKHA

The Middle East's Generation Facebook

What will the Middle East look like 25 years from now? That was the assignment the World Policy Journal gave Mona El Tahawy for their 25th anniversary edition. Mona decided to have some fun and imagination. This is what she came up with, mixing real people in imaginary scenarios in 2033. Who knows? They might come true!

Egypt: Mother incriminated in a case of FGM

On November 7, Al Masry Al Youm Newspaper published an article (AR) about a 14 year old girl who was admitted into a hospital suffering of severe bleeding after an FGM procedure that went bad. Due to the above mentioned law, the hospital reported the case of the general attorney.

Egypt: Sexual Harassment Victim Stabbed to Death

I received an invitation to join a group named “Dr. Shaimaa Fouad … May you rest in Peace.” I did not know her and I wondered why anyone would invite me to such a group. Little did I know! Dr. Shaimaa Fouad died defending herself.

Egypt: Sexual Harassment Victims, Keep your Mouth Shut!

On November 1, Al Masry Al Youm shocked its readers with an article about two girls who went to the police station to report a sexual harassment incident but instead, they were detained for six hours and harassed by the officers on duty.

Speaking of Sexual Harassment: Noha Makes Egyptians Angry!

On October 30, Noha made Egyptians angry when Al Masry Al Youm newspaper published an article saying that Noha's lawyer Naglaa El Emam decided to appeal in favor of the harasser Sherif Gommaa after she found out that Noha was born in Jaffa and carries an Israeli passport. The lawyer also said that Noha sued a French officer for harassing her a year and a half ago when she was in France.

Speaking of Sexual Harassment: Noha Makes Egyptians Proud!

In an unprecedented case, sexual harasser Sherif Gommaa was sentenced to three years behind bars, hard labour, and was also ordered to pay 5,001 Egyptian pounds fine to Noha Roshdy Saleh for groping her in the street.

Why Do Egyptians Get Divorced?

This question has been circulating a lot in many unrelated circles nowadays. On Facebook, Alyaa Gad, an Egyptian physician living abroad, was shocked to know that "the governmental Central Body for Mobilisation and Statistics (CBMS) found that 75,000 divorce cases have been ruled on by Egyptian courts in 2006-2007, the survey found that in 45,000 cases the reason behind the divorce was the Internet."

Young Egyptian Women Do Not Want to Work

While some women are still struggling to prove themselves in the workplace, the young generation of Egyptian men and women seems to be taking a different route. Fantasia was watching an episode of El Beyoot Asrar (Homes have Secrets) where they were talking about women and whether they should work or not.

Egypt: Another Doweika Tragedy Waiting to Happen!

Students at the faculty of Engineering in Alexandria University created a group on Facebook called "The Mokattam Catastrophe to be repeated in the faculty of Engineering." The student's cry follows a tragedy in Doweika, a Cairo slum, where rocks came tumbling on homes, killing and maiming scores of poor people. In the description of the group the students wrote:

Who are those People .... in the People's Assembly?

In the aftermath of the Egyptian Parliament going up in flames, people's reactions ranged from utter shock, sadness, to gloating. Blogger Wael Nawara conducted an independent poll asking bloggers, readers, and Egyptian internet users to answer the following question: Does the Egyptian Parliament truly represent the people?

Suez Canal donates 1,000,000 Egyptian Pounds to Doweika Victims

After the Doweika catastrophe, where at least six hundred people were buried alive under the rubble of Moqattam hill, Asser decided to calculate how much time does it take Suez Canal to earn the one million pounds.

The SCA had announced, in a statement by its official speaker, that the general revenues of the Suez Canal in the month of August 2008 was the highest in its whole history, as it had passed 500 million USD or 2.746 billion EGP, the exact figure according to the speaker was 504 million Dollars.

Not Guilty: Egypt's Ferry Disaster

On February 3, 2006 Al-Salam ferry sank in the middle of the Red Sea killing more than 1,000 people who were coming to Safaga, Egypt from Saudi Arabia. The passengers were mainly Egyptian workers in Saudi Arabia, who were returning home on vacation or who were bringing their savings home to retire in their homeland. The Egyptian criminal court has found the owner of a Red Sea ferry and four others not guilty of manslaughter.

The families of the victims as well as Egyptian bloggers were shocked and angered. Wandering Scarab, in "The Dreaded Ferry" wrote:

Egypt Silences the Voice of Iran

On July 24th, Maggie Michael reported:

Egyptian authorities shut down the Cairo office of an Iranian TV network, a security official said Thursday, as the two nations spar over a film that justifies the killing of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat by Islamic militants.

Blogger Dina Ayoub in her post Egypt vs Iran takes us back to the time when President Sadat signed the peace treaty with Israel:

Egypt: A Man's Views on Sexual Harassment

Emotional Deficit. For several decades, the Egyptian society was being Islamized, making the chances of having a natural and healthy pre-marriage boy-girl relationship ever diminishing. Marriage itself, it would seem is becoming more unaffordable than ever. The average age for marriage in Egypt for men has consistently increased. It is normal to see someone who is thirty years old who still has a few years to go before he can afford to provide the extensive requirements for marriage. In many cases, a young male in Egypt had to travel to the Gulf and work for a few years "building his fortune" to be able to afford the hefty burdens of marriage. Knowing that boys probably reach puberty at the age of 13 or 14, this means that a male in Egypt will spend some twenty years suffering from this emotional and "physical" deficit.

Mourning A Sexually Harassed Egypt - Part 2

Reuters published survey on sexual harassment in Egypt is still stirring angry responses from Egyptian bloggers. In her post titled "Shame and Sexual Harassment in Egypt", Mona Eltahawy took a trip back in time and visited her early experiences with sexual harassment:

Mourning a Sexually Harassed Egypt

Dina - now living in Vancouver - remembers what every Egyptian woman identifies with saying "There's this look in an Egyptian man's eyes that makes me want to poke his eyes out, mutilate his body parts, and then kill him. A psychotic, undressing, invasive and violating look. A look so disgusting that it makes me shiver in my own skin, and wish that the earth would just swallow me up to cover me from it. A look so filthy, that you can see the virtual assault on you in his sleazy eyes. I hate that look so much."

The Victimization of Egyptian Women and Children

In a not-so-rare scenario in Egypt, the man has the right to beat his wife and children as much and as severely as he wishes and no criminal charges can be filed against him - unless one of them dies as a result of this beating. Why?

"Because some crazy sadistic men have claimed that this is an authorized tool for disciplining a man's wife and children in Islam! Which is absolutely not true" explains the infuriated Fantasia.

From the Diary of a Sinister Egyptian Spinster

Back in March 2008, Eman Hashim wrote a post [Ar] questioning why do Muslim Egyptian women need a "wakeel" - a man who has to sign her off to her husband. Let me give you a bit more insight here: unlike western cultures where the father gives away the bride as a jest of his approval and blessing, in Islam the marriage is "flawed" if the father, or the uncle if the father is deceased, has to speak on the bride's behalf through out all the paperwork and marriage procedures. Many sheikhs frown upon the thought of a girl - especially one who has never been married before and who is supposedly a virgin - marrying herself away.

Walk Like an Egyptian ... Marry Like an Egyptian

One particular post about Egyptian women getting married to foreign men caught my attention.

In her post about The Whores, Ghawayesh starts by saying: "Times are changing and many ‘respected' families have come to accept the fact that their daughters can make their own choices of choosing to marry whoever they want, if they EVER CHOOSE to marry, which is also a new trend in Egypt."

"Beware of Egyptian Men," says the Canadian Embassy

Wandering Scarab - an Egyptian girl living in Canada - prior to her last visit to Egypt, decided to visit the Canadian Consulate website to register with the consulate in Egypt just in case her Canadian husband or her baby girl needed assistance with travel or local authorities. What she read on the site was appalling and ended up in her writing this post.

Women, particularly foreign women, are frequently subject to unpleasant male attention, sexual harassment, and verbal abuse. This often takes the form of staring, inappropriate remarks, catcalls, and touching. The Department publishes a booklet entitled Her Own Way: A Woman's Guide to Safe and Successful Travel. Its prime objective is to inform Canadian women and encourage them to travel safely.

Obama's ripple effect on the Egyptian blogosphere - Part 1

Politics is not my thing but this was too good to resist. When I came across Wael Nawara's writings I knew that I stumbled on a goldmine. In his post - Too Secular to Win? - Wael asked four tough questions that left his readers wondering: What is the world coming to? Where is Secular America? When did people stop thinking that a person's religion is their own business? Can Obama, if he ever wins, try to help change that? Help pick our world from these trends of rising religious-mania ... starting with the US? But will he ever win?

Wael started his post by citing an average American woman who was interviewed on CNN saying:

"I do not trust him (Obama) he is a Muslim ..."

Obama's ripple effect on the Egyptian blogosphere - Part 2

Moving from Secularism and diversity to the Rantings of a Sandmonkey on Why Obama will Fail;

"In my house , right now, I have the electoral programs for both Obama and McCain, and reading them has provided me with hours of constant amusement. McCain's program is under the impression that the world is great and everything is fine and dandy, and all we really have to do is to bomb a couple more areas in the world (a bomb here, a couple there) and all will be well with the world again. I personally love it, but that's because I am Pro-Death and would welcome anything that would bring the world's population down a notch, but I doubt the rest of you exactly share my sentiment, so, ehh, yeah, bad electoral program, bad!"

Tales from an Egyptian Household - The Driver

I do not know why I chose to share that particular incident with you; it is very personal, very embarrassing, and very disturbing. I am not sure how you will view me or what you will think of me now. Part of me wants to write a jolly piece on summer but a bigger part of me wants to write about my first encounter with sexual harassment. I am just a middle class Egyptian girl who, like many other girls, was taught to bury her head in the sand.

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