Sexual Harassment Crackdown – FINALLY
Sexual harassment runs rampant through Egypt’s streets, you could be veiled, fully dressed in a Burqa, or naked, it’s all pretty much the same thing in the eyes of those who feel the need to provoke and touch women in the streets.
Cat calls, a quick grab here and there all things an everyday woman or foreigner for that matter encounters in the streets (it is truly sad and not a laughing matter) and no matter how much the media talks about it, it seemed to fall on deaf ears; UNTIL NOW!
On Monday a court in Cairo sentenced a man 2,000 L.E. and two years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in Maadi several months earlier.
The 42 year old man was arrested in Maadi for grabbing a woman’s bottom while she was waiting for a cab in the street. This is definitely new and unprecedented since Egypt’s laws do not clearly state that anything should be done in cases of sexual harassment, especially since it’s hard to prove.
Looks like things will hopefully be changing and this is the governments attempt to crack down on harassment in the streets.
We Said This: Here’s a scary fact – A 2008 survey by the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights found that 83 per cent of local women in Egypt and 98 per cent of foreign women had been subjected to harassment at least once.***
***Source: Ahram Online
