Sexual Harassment Takes Center Stage Again in Egypt

The term of sexual harassment wasn’t that familiar in Egypt. This unacceptable term has been gaining ground in a country which famous for its security and safety. There is even a mass sexual harassment like the incident of last Eid Al-Fitr (Lesser Bairam) in Cairo streets, first stirred by a notorious female entertainer. That day was called since then ” Black Tuesday ” in Egypt. The latest mass sexual harassment incident took place on Monday evening, July, 2nd, 2007, after the end of the soccer match between Al-Ahli and Al Zamalek, leading teams of the Egyptian soccer. Fans of both teams went out of Cairo stadium to spread in various districts, to express their happiness or sadness but in a hideous and outlandish manner. Many young men assaulted young girls and even old women in the midst of a complete lack of security.
 
 
No Religious or Moral Deterrent to Confront This Phenomenon
 
Ikhwanweb held a phone interview with Naglaa Imam, the manager of Bariq society for fighting violence against women. She said: “The current chaos in Egypt is a social phenomenon that spawns all individual and mass crimes. Generally speaking, any gathering of any kind these days in Egypt will spawn crimes, specially sexual harassments, rapes and assaults..etc. The mass sexual harassment against girls was a natural reaction for such a huge gathering of youth, gatherings which are mostly accompanied by a state of security chaos and also a kind of criminal appearances, like blocking streets and stopping traffic, breaking cars and even sometimes opening other cars and grabbing any person inside them, men or women. This is definitely due to a state of full security deterioration, a full absence of security. This also due to making security focus on only single person in this country, the president for whose safety any security can be violated and any role can be broken. No attention to given to any man, woman or child in this country.
 
“We are living in the age of creative chaos, which can spawn any crime that one’s mind may imagine. Egypt sees highwaymen with no confrontation from any security service. Sexual harassments are committed in public without taking any real step to face them” she added.
 
Regarding the main reasons for the spread of the phenomenon of mass sexual harassment in Egypt, Naglaa Imam said:” to say it in a nutshell, there is no religious or moral deterrent. The exaggerated happiness and ecstasy of the young men after every soccer match, leading to the above mentioned bad conduct. There is no deterrent to prevent them from carrying out such acts of sabotage. Add to this the very widespread unemployment among young men. The corrupt media’s rude, impudent and debauch scenes. The young men’s rejectionist attitudes towards all daily incidents in Egypt. The result is that the society is currently divided into two parts: criminals and victims. There is no security service to confront criminals or protect victims.”
 
Youth Feel Insecure In their Country

For her part, Gihan Al Halafawi, a Muslim Brotherhood female leader and a candidate for 2000 legislative elections, said about the phenomenon of mass sexual harassment against girls:” This phenomenon is relatively new to the Egyptian society. However, it is unfortunately a natural result of the current problems in Egypt, including absence of religious values, deterioration of moral values, losing identity and that the youth have lost any hope in the future. When young men lose feeling of security inside their homeland and can not express their views and when they feel that they are denied the chance to lead a decent life, denied jobs that may address their ambition and denied a safe haven with an easy and comfortable marriage and are dealt with as second-class citizens…when the youth are denied such rights, such hideous phenomena emerge.
 
“These young men are ambitious and very good young. They seek want to do their duties towards their country. But they feel that no one pays attention to their views or complaints. It is unfortunately natural that such incidents emerge because the youth can’t give vent to their feelings because there is a dictatorial regime that may prosecute them. So they give vent to their feelings in a wrong way, leading to the current state of security chaos”, adds Al-Halafawi.
 
Al Halafawi:” Yesterday, life all over Alexandria came to a full halt because the president was visiting the city to open new cities. To under claims of protecting the president, people were stranded inside transportations and inside houses. No one was allowed to move, and traffic and all means of transportation came to a full halt for more than four hours, only because of the visit of the president. Is this acceptable in a country which is supposed to be dealing people as human beings. This is one single example of the deterioration in morals and values.”