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New HarassMap Campaign: ‘Harasser = Criminal’

May 23, 2015 By HKearl

From our friend HarassMap in Egypt:

“Our campaign ‘Harasser = Criminal’ (El Mota7aresh Mogrim) is live!

It is a campaign to motivate people to take action and stand up to sexual harassment when they see it happen, so that we can start building a society where sexual harassment is not tolerated and harassers do not get away with their crime.

We launched with a press conference on Thursday May 21 at the Goethe Institute in downtown Cairo. The launch was covered by MBCMasr, Mada Masr, Youm 7, and others. Check out our video from the press conference here. 

The campaign is now running online on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Over the next week it will roll out on the streets in Cairo and other governorates around Egypt.

TV and radio ads will be aired on MBC Masr, CBC, El Nahar, Dream 2, and Radio Masr. Find the directors cut versions of the campaign ads here:

You can find more written information about the campaign on our website.”

 

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Filed Under: Resources, street harassment Tagged With: campaign, Egypt, HarassMap

Help stop harassment in Egypt TODAY!

July 14, 2013 By HKearl

Today is the last day of HarassMap‘s fundraiser campaign – the funds will allow them to significantly increase their efforts.

“Sexual harassment in Egypt has reached catastrophic levels. In a UN Women 2013 study, 99.3% of Egyptian women surveyed said that they have been sexually harassed in their everyday life. The same study revealed that, in 85% of the cases, none of the bystanders actually intervened to help.

This epidemic has taken an even uglier turn. Sexual violence is now being used as a tool against women participating in political and public life. In just six days of mass protests between June 28 and July 7 2013, over 185 cases of horrific mob sexual assault and rape have been reported in Tahrir Square….

We need your help to fund a nationwide campaign of TV commercials, print ads, radio ads, guerilla marketing, pop culture, and graffiti to combat this epidemic.”

Please donate if you can and help support these heroes.

On a personal note – a year ago today, my dad and I met with the leaders of HarassMap in Egypt. We were so impressed to see how they work TIRELESSLY in often unsafe and chaotic conditions to make public places safer. He and I have both donated to support their campaign.

HarassMap meets on Saturday evenings
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Filed Under: street harassment Tagged With: Egypt, HarassMap

Egypt Sexual Assault Story Links

July 6, 2013 By HKearl

Trigger Warning

I am devastated by the enormous number of mass sexual assaults – when one is too many – that have occurred at Tahrir Square over the last few days. This is unacceptable. To learn more about what’s happened, and the brave people who are working to keep women safe, here are a few of the many recent news stories:

* Guardian, “80 sexual assaults in one day – the other story of Tahrir Square“

* The Daily Beast, “Egypt’s Plague of Sex Attacks“

* Your Middle East, “Almost 100 women sexually assaulted in Cairo, says HRW“

* MSNBC, “As Egyptian unrests grows, sexual assaults rampant“

* Think Progress, “How Activists Are Fighting Back Against The Egyptian Revolution’s Sexual Assault Problem“

* Al Jazeera, “Women sexually assaulted in Egypt protests“

* The Irish Times, “Guest post: On the ground in Egypt“

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Filed Under: News stories Tagged With: Egypt, HarassMap, Tahrir Square

Egypt: Volunteers Stop Sexual Attacks

July 2, 2013 By HKearl

Members of @TahrirBodyGuard, via their Twitter account

Trigger Warning

Once again Egyptians are protesting at Tahrir Square in the hopes of creating good and lasting political change, and once again mobs of men have attacked many of the women present at Tahrir and the surrounding areas.

The anti-harassment group OpAntiSH said they received 46 reports of mob sexual assaults in the vicinity on June 30, from 6 p.m. Sunday evening until around 2 a.m. Monday. The most common areas for these assaults were the entrances leading to the Square. They stress that many more attacks likely occurred; these were just the number of assaults reported to them.

On July 1, OpAntiSH has reported that 17 additional attacks occurred.

From the OpAntiSH press release:

“Operation Anti-SexualHarassment/Assault (OpAntiSH) observed cases of physical attacks against women by men using sticks at the entrance/exit to the Sadat metro station in front of Kentucky Fried Chicken and received reports of women being kidnapped in vehicles. The increasing seriousness of sexual assaults on female protestors is a reflection of the increasing sexual violence against women in general,perpetrated by both society and the state, which negatively impacts women’s participation in the public sphere.

OpAntiSH expresses its disappointment in the government’s response to mob sexual assaults on female protestors. While the presidency has exploited the incidents for political gain in the media, a source at the Ministry of Health violated the privacy of one of the survivors, publishing details of the assault, her name, and the name of the hospital in which she was receiving treatment, in a blatant violation of the most basic rules and ethics of the medical profession…

OpAntiSH would like to salute all the women in the squares of Egypt, as well as the male and female volunteers in the groups (Tahrir Bodyguard & OpAntiSH) who protect Tahrir Square and intervene in cases of mob sexual harassment and assault, despite the great risks they face.”

HarassMap Volunteer Mohamed El-khateeb wrote a first-person account about incidents on June 30. This excerpt gives you a feel for the kinds of attacks happening and the brave, stressful and intense work the anti-harassment volunteers are doing to try to keep women safe:

“** 23:07 Hrs **

We received a phone call from a colleague/friend regarding a sexual harassment incident happening at the

Mohamed Mahmoud Metro exit (the one close to Hardees). Told my intervention team colleagues and we all rushed towards the place. It was extremely crowded and by the time we got to the metro, the crowd already moved towards belday cafe, right behind the main Tahrir Menasa (stage).

Apparently some of the bystanders helped smuggle the women inside Belady Cafe and some of the workers went out to protect the cafe and pulled down the metal gates. Our intervention team managed to get to the place, some of them were able to get into the store.

We tried all tricks we knew, like pretending that the women left and that nothing is happened, yet all in vain.

We tried to form a safe buffer area out of the cafe, joining arms and elbows to form a human shield against the harassers and curious crowds. Some of the bystanders, wanted to take me out of the circle under the premise that they wanted to form a safe corridor (I wasn’t wearing an OpAntiSH T-Shirt).

I tried to maintain my position. After a few minutes the circle broke, and I was pulled out of the place, pushed towards the metal facades/gates covers the shops beside the cafe, then carried away with crowds towards Tahrir street.

People we trying to beat me with belts, sticks. A guy was spilling some form of liquid that made the crowd run away in a stampede style. (turned out afterwards that it was boiling water).

I went around towards the the square (A green metal fence, blocks the area between the pavement of Belady cafe and the square itself), sent an update by phone to my colleagues and tried to get back again to the place. I also saw a few volunteers from Tahrir bodyguards nearby and informed them of the incident. They rushed in to help us.

The crowds were still at the place. A semi-safe corridor was formed by the people. At this moment, and by utter coincidence, a couple (A woman and a man) crossed from Tahrir st to hardees and passed through the corridor.

The crowd (who were now held off by OpAntiSH, Tahrir body guard volunteers and helpful bystanders) wanted to attack the couple and harass the woman. They pushed in hard onto the human shield.

Luckily they couldn’t overthrow the volunteers and nothing happened. At this point I really wished I had a functioning camera to take pictures of the crowd faces and what had just happened (I was using my basic Nokia phone cause my blackberry ran out of power).

After a few more minutes, finally the volunteers were able to take the women out of the cafe and into safety.

The incident ended at 23:25

SO BRAVE.

* Learn more about the sexual violence amidst the protests from watching a Wall Street Journal video report.

* Keep up with the latest news by following @opantish, @tahrirbodyguard and @harassmap.

* Please spread the word: #EndSH hotlines in & around #Tahrir: 01016051145/ 01157892357 & Landline 0227946787

* And please donate to support the work of HarassMap!

Thank you to every group and every person who is risking so much because they believe in freedom, choice, opportunity, and the right to protest safely. Sending much love and support from the SSH family to you all.

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Filed Under: News stories, street harassment Tagged With: Cairo, Egypt, HarassMap, June30, sexual violence, TahrirBodyGuards

Egypt: Personal Account from Jan. 25 Protest

January 28, 2013 By Contributor

Editor’s Note: HarassMap, an anti-harassment group in Egypt, posted the following on their Facebook account over the weekend. They, and the author, gave me permission to share it here. Please share it widely and follow their work: Website | Facebook | Twitter.  Also, here is a Guardian article about the attacks on women on Jan. 25.

THIS IS A HARASSMAP STAFF MEMBER’S PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF MOB SEXUAL ATTACKS IN #TAHRIR ON #JAN25 DURING OUR EFFORTS TO COUNTER THEM AS PART OF Op Anti-Sexual Harassment/Assault قوة ضد التحرش/الإعتداء الجنسي الجماعي

By Hussein ElShafie

When I joined the second round of OpAntiSH, as a core team member and a Midan team participant, I wasn’t anticipating the nightmare we all went through! I expected our mere presence in the heart of the protests to be an important warning sign for the mobs not to approach the protesters. I walked through the square distributing flyers and I was met with cooperation and gratitude from the side of the people. However, in certain instances I would get completely encircled by groups who would grab my shirt, poke me and snatch flyers from my hands. I didn’t give their attitude much attention and I attributed it to the Adrenalin rush they must be experiencing.

While I walked I saw two girls from our Safety team running towards me asking for help dealing with a report from the Omar Makram side. We all three ran across the square bumping into everyone until we arrived to Omar Makram and we found nothing going on! Later we were informed that while we mobilized our efforts to that area a girl was being mob-attacked by the Mohamed Mahmoud side.

I went back to our headquarters in Talaat Harb and shortly afterwards our rescue team arrived to the building. The girl was among them semi-comatose. A huge crowd appeared to accompany them to the door and then they tried to break in. We half-closed the door and pulled in our volunteers. They were all being squeezed, grabbed and unable to breathe. While I was pulling in one of them I felt as if I was pulling out a tissue from a tight tissue box. We got them all inside, shut the door and locked it. Harassers tried to break the door and they started a small fire. The numbers were insane. The armed mob was infuriated by the sight of the girls indoor and by the fact that they (harassers) could not reach them. I asked one of them from behind the door what is it that they wanted and he answered “What are all those women doing inside?!”. We turned off the lights and sent the girls upstairs trying to minimize our visibility. The nightmare kept going on for 2 hours until their energy faded and we managed to gather some help from outside to disperse the mob. Police was non-existent.

When it was a little safer to get out I went with another volunteer from the Intervention team to survey the square, and by the time we could make out the Mohamed Mahmoud area a tear gas canister was thrown at us. We ran back to the building suffocating, falling off every few seconds and unable to open our eyes. That very canister could have saved us a lot of terror and harassment if it had been thrown at the mobs that had attacked us perseveringly for two hours earlier.

We were specifically targeted by the mobs while the police kept a deaf ear to our situation. However, our brave men and women managed to survive it. We were getting fake reports to waste our efforts and yet we managed to interfere in more than a dozen mob harassment cases. Seeing the relentless efforts of our volunteers was but an affirmation of the nobility of our cause, and an inspiration for every human being who wants to voice out their right to be free, safe and respected.

بلغوا عن حوادث التحرش الجنسي | Report sexual harassment: SMS 6069 | http://harassmap.org/reports/submit

تطوعوا | Volunteer: bit.ly/ZsFKcL

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Filed Under: Stories, street harassment Tagged With: Cairo, Egypt, HarassMap, Jan25, protest, sexual violence, Tahrir

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