-------- "This is the time for action not only words, use your God given gifts to develop this country, dont be afraid to speak up, and feel PROUD THAT U R EGYPTIAN." -------- Mohaly, Feb 2011

Thursday, April 10, 2008

388) Dark Side of Egypt - V - Sexual Harassment!

Our friends, sisters, wives, and even mothers are sexually harassed on different levels; the most common one is Street Harassment (Mo3aksa). Although this is not a unique problem for Egypt but there are 2 questions to be raised:
1. Why did it increase DRAMATICALLY during the last couple of years.
2. How can we contain it? or at least stop it there before it becomes bigger & bigger problem.
Check out this report may be it help us answering...



Mohaly
Suggested by: Shaimaa

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have been following the posts, but this my first comment in this blog:

If a couple wishes to marry , they must get approved in all levels, Like economically suitable for a wedding, culture, religion ,race,age etc;which is why there is a greater challenge for younger generations if they do not posses the limits mentioned.

So the solution is to change that and start looking positvely about getting people together not take them apart!!

Tamer Mokhtar said...

Well defining harassment will make it easy to first understand, think and find solution!

this subject id very rich, and i guess it's not fully introduced as it should be! we are still living on earth, angles not living here!!

i like one quote "the Egyptian mentality has sort of flexibility that may move physically the mind, from a place to another, and also change it's role & functionality"

we kharbeeeeeeeesh da el nahrda el khamees :D!!

Shimaa Gamal said...

Hello
Thanks Mohaly for your response. The report is really interesting.
Actually Mr. Parliament man really pissed me off with his views. If these are the views of our legislators I don’t think we will ever have a decent punishment against sexual harassment. I can’t believe that he thinks the woman brings it to herself by the way she dresses or because of where she walks. I can’t believe the Egyptian ideology of placing the victim in the criminal’s cage.
I don’t think sexual frustration is the problem. Personally I can’t believe that sex is the controlling desire and if sexual frustration is the only reason why an increasing number of married men, who are supposed to have a safe and regular access to sex, are getting engaged in sexual harassment. The problem is with the position of women in the Egyptian community. The problem isn’t about sexual frustration but about men’s self actualization.
Men in our community are raised on the basis of superiority over women. Their role model is “si el sayed” a man will never admit that he thinks of a woman as a partner. Men are always raised to believe that women are of inferior spices that were created to follow. Men in our communities were raised to believe that they are superior only because they are males. Testosterone is the thing that differentiates masters and slaves in our community. But things aren’t always that easy. Women are gaining position, and women are forcing presence. To be superior now isn’t directly related to your gender. Most men seem to accept this fact, but this isn’t the case with all of them. Even some of those who show a high degree of understanding feel that they are challenged. That their superiority which is the thing they were raised to believe that they were created for is endangered by these women. So, they start imposing sex as a last defensive method to prove that they worth this superiority.
The thing is, I don’t mind to have psycho men running on the streets thinking of nothing but to prove they are good males who deserve to lead as far as these maniacs are hiring specialist to help them prove it. But there is no reason for anyone to assume that any woman is a specialist. And even when hiring a specialist, there must be trade etiquette. Things should never be the way they are now.
I believe that the only way to stop sexual harassments is to enforce law. Law in Egypt is a myth. Law in Egypt is like ghosts, people say it exists but no one has seen it in action. The problem with Egypt is that law is UNDER everyone. That parliament man who said that girls don’t report because they think reporting is some sort of scandal is wrong. Personally I will never report because I will have to go through a humiliating process of telling numerous persons what exactly happen. And I will have to deal with ideologies similar to his ideology that will probably blame me for the harassment because I might happen to be pretty. I will never report because I know it will always lead to nothing. Because there is nothing that grants law enforcement in Egypt (ella lw 2olt elly 3akesny mn el ekhwan el moslmeen)
Zaman kan elly ye3akes wa7da yerkebooh 7omar bel ma2loob we ye7la2oloh zalbta weylafefooh el shaware3. Kan esmaha el gorsa. I think the only way to protect the Egyptian females from these harassments is to think out of the box and find effective punishments. Punishments that take place in public television to make sure everyone have seen it.
3ayez te3raf el nas bet3akes lieh, 3ashan e7na sha3b mesh metraby. 3ayez te2dy 3ala el mo3ksa lazem teraby el sha3b. wel tarbeya malhash ella taree2a wa7da el thawab wel 3ekab. Lama ne3akeb, ne3akeb begad. Lama nekafe2 nekafe2 fe3lan.
I am sorry for being that long thanks for tackling that subject
Your’s
Shimaa