Before the Egyptian Revolution in early 2011, a law against sexual harassment – including the sexual harassment that happens in the streets – was making its way through the Egyptian Parliament. Since the Revolution, not much has happened, though activists have continued to bring attention to the widespread problem of sexual harassment and street harassment and continue to advocate for a law.
In exciting news, this week, Egypt’s liberal Free Egyptians Party (FEP) declared its support for an anti-sexual harassment law.
“According to the report, the party condemned in a statement the ‘shameful stance of the female parliament members of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), who stand against a woman’s right to defend herself and refuse to condemn the man who assaulted the woman and only blame the society and the woman, who is the victim.’
Two-thirds of the Egyptian women experience sexual harassment on a daily basis, according to a 2008 statistics published by the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights.
FEP member Mina Mounir was quoted as saying that the party supports women in their fight against sexual harassment ‘which became widespread in Egyptian society and must be combated, through community outreach, and encouraging citizens to be positive and not allow harassment of girls in the street, or public transportation.’
On Saturday, the FEP took part in a protest organized by women’s rights organizations in central Cairo against the sexual harassment phenomenon.”
Good! And tomorrow evening, hundreds of people will gather together to speak out against sexual harassment in Cairo. Via their Facebook event page:
“We are a group of Egyptian initiatives and activists supporting Egyptian Women’s full right to access public spaces such as streets, transport freely and safely. It’s evident now that sexual harassment has become a painful daily reality, threatening our lives. Through our campaign “Nefsy” or “I aspire” we hope to reflect our aspirations; our campaign is inspired from our daily personal experiences.
The first activity of this campaign will be conducting “Salasel” which is simply gathering and standing next to each other each one with a message this message carries an aspiration to the streets of Cairo. we have chosen Wednesday May 16th to be our first (yet not the last) action come and invite your friends- men and women are welcome.”
If you’re in Cairo, I hope you can join them. Everyone deserves a life that is free from sexual harassment and sexual violence.
