Here’s an example of a workshop you can hold in your community.
By Holly Dagres
Fight Harassment 101 (FH101) was created to educate female Egyptians and non-Egyptians about harassment and the use of self-defense. Once a week at the American University of Cairo, 15 students would take part in FH101 for two hours for about 10 weeks.
Weekly, 2-3 young women as well as a black belt Judo instructor hosted the initiative. At the beginning of class, an information page was provided to the attendees, mostly copied from Holly Kearl’s website, Stop Street Harassment, that provided information about: what to do if harassed, what harassment is, and the contact information for the organization HarassMap in Egypt.
During the first 30 minutes, the young women would discuss harassment and any incidents they experienced in the past to encourage them to no longer feel ashamed or blamed for the harassment they experience.
The next hour and half focused on learning self-defense. Not all young women were active in exercise, but they were taught not only the basic defense mechanisms, but also more physicals ones such as how to punch, or throw a person over if they grab them from behind, et cetra. We did not expect these young women to be able to do this if they experienced a physical assault, but we hoped by providing these tools, they would feel more able to defend themselves and perhaps ward away any potential attackers.
Out of the 15 students, about 13 wore hijab, countering the notion that harassment is correlated with the way someone is dressed. Although these women were trained with the basics, it gave them a sense of empowerment to defend themselves in the worst-case scenarios. At first they were shy about sharing their experiences, but once they found it was a common occurrence and learned that it was not their fault, they felt the need to fight against it. Many did not know that in some parts of the world, sexual harassment is considered to be a human rights violation.
Here are two articles I wrote about the class.
1. Fight Harassment 101: Egypt’s Obstacle to Ending Sexual Harassment
2. Enough Talk on Harassment, Egypt — Do Something About It
Holly Dagres, an Iranian American, is an analyst and commentator on Middle East affairs. Currently living in Egypt, she is a researcher at the Cairo Review of Global Affairs and pursuing a master’s degree in political science at the American University in Cairo.
