Harassment Of Women On Cairo Streets

Kim, there used to be a sicko who used to masturbate outside our college and guess what no one reported him. He used to stand in a corner look at the building and be at it.

Some dudes also behaved similarly outside my school and were caught by the cops.

Frankly I think these sickos need to be locked away in asylums.

The sexual harassment and assault of women in Egypt is well documented. Even native Egyptian women lament their situation. It makes no difference how you are dressed (although, clearly, wearing booty shorts will eventually make you more of a target), even women in abayas are pinched and groped.

As to why foreigners stay quiet? Well, they do not understand local customs as well as they should, and fear offending someone who is just trying to be kind. They do not know that no man in Egypt would touch a woman they do not know, so they feel like maybe it is just some kind of welcoming gesture. Or maybe they want to believe that. Dunno. But it really irresponsible on their part to be ignorant of the culture and norms before heading off to a foreign country. Not to blame the victim, but one should know what is "normal" so one can react accordingly.

I will say that I have almost never been groped in the US (we have scores of other issues, but this one is less common). I can remember only one time where it happened. In India, I was groped pretty regularly. I learned how to react quickly. But I will admit that the first time some random guy purposely brushed against my breast in public, I was silent. I had not earthly idea how to react because I was shocked. I got over that quickly, but really, it takes time to get your bearings in a foreign land.

PS, foreign women who wear inappropriate clothing in Dubai are MORONS. I am not saying that they should wear a burqua, but long pants or a long skirt and a shirt with at the very least short sleeves that does not hug the body are the minimum I would expect. it is pretty disrespectful to run around there in shorts and a tank top. WTF?

Dee, I know what you mean, but at least in India when it comes to masturbation in public places, there are some repercussions.

In Egypt there are absolutely none. A friend mentioned that a professor of Gender studies stated in a lecture last year that there are at least 24,000 rapes in Egypt each year (I don't know where she got her figures from, but I could check) and hardly 1 or 2 are ever reported, because the system makes it seem like it is all the woman's fault.

SS, I get your point of not realising what is culturally acceptable in a new country. But in my opinion and experience a woman should stand up for her basic rights no matter which country she is in and personal space is one of those rights. If it isnt ok in your own country which in the case of "Western Nations" are supposedly more open and liberal, why would they think that infringement on private space is ok in a culturally conservative country.

Given that, while I was on project in the Egyptian museum, women from a certain part of the world were noted for arriving as tourists in neeted tops and micro shorts, often wearing little else underneath. While they create quite a stir wherver they go, they tend to stick to their tour group and get left alone. Whereas women in abayas and even niqab get groped in some parts of this city.

Kim, I hear ya. But not everyone is as self-assured as you or I.

Also, people have very different ideas about personal space. My family is from Italy. We often touch people we do not know, and we touch people we DO know all the time (read: hang all over each other). So honestly if I were in Egypt or anywhere else and someone touched me, it would be on a case by case basis on whether or not I would be offended. If the person made me uncomfortable, I would be offended, if the person meant nothing by it, I probably would not be.

But we cannot expect all women to have the ability (or the want) to behave exactly as we would. People need to form their own thresholds.

Your point makes sense to me SS.

I've lived in the US and there personal space is much higher as compared to India. A lot of European countries too have much broader personal space, so I acknowledge that I was generalising "Westerners" and their need for personal space.

Arab culture in Middle East and especially North Africa is a very promiscous one. My first dirty novel(actually non-fiction) was 'The Cradle of Erotica'. A collection of works by famous anthropologists like Sir Richard Burton and others.

While most of orient was covered in that book, North Africa was the ranchiest. The incidents Kim has mentioned is PG-13 in comparison to what is written in that book.

As far as Dubai is concerned, I found it surpisingly trendy. Even Arab girls were fashionably attired.

so let me get this straight, Kaiser... you think you can generalize all behavior in all arab cultures cause you read some Burton tales?

wow.

Smallsquirrel...@7

My post should have started and ended with "Popular perceptions of......".

Don't worry all cultures have some kind of promiscuity built into into them in equal measure and Arab culture is no exception. So don't get your chaddis into a politically correct twist.

Thank you for your article and the comments. I am an Egyptian woman who lived most of my life in Egypt with the exception of some years in Canada. Growing up in Egypt I was subject to groping and other forms of sexual harassment on the streets one too many times, going far back to the time I was 12. I see the root of the problem to lie in the blatant disrespect for the woman's body. The flip side of the coin is the woman's own sense of shame about her body which makes her want (or accept) to cover it all up. As a teenager three decades ago, it took me time to realize that my body (having curves, in particular!) was nothing to be ashamed of, that looking good was not a sin, and more importantly, that no one was to blame for such actions but those wackos with distorted minds. The sad part is that I found myself explaining to my daughter that she had to dress modestly if she were to walk in Cairo streets, for how else could we ensure her safety? Sad.

Nagla, even modestly dressed women are not left alone and this is something we all have experienced.

Agree totally Dee.

kim:

there was a 'lament' by a cairene about groping and verbal abuses ... i excerpted it on baithak without mentioning the city and rhetorically asked the readers to name the country

one commentator said it could be any city in india or pakistan

ss (no surprise there) agree with your comments:)

hmm interesting.

I think the reason I stopped getting harassed in India, was that I avoided crowds like melas, Bombay local stations etc. in the last few years. (Fortunately I am now at a stage where I can afford to not put myself in crowds in India.)

The 2nd point is that as SS pointed out, I am now much more self-assured. I am also much more aware of my surroundings and have extremely aggressive body language if I am in an atmosphere where something like this could happen. Plus the advantage in India is that speaking a few of its langauges, I know when to scream and what to scream at a perpetrator to scare them off.

Its always tougher in a new place where you can't speak the local language fluently enough to garner crowd support.

Kim, that is only part of the equation. sometimes your body language is aggressive and there is a kind of man that sees that as a challenge. I knew the local language in bangalore and am very self-assured and yet... full on breast grabs right on MG road... more than once.

I think we get a false sense of security also. please understand that not all victims are meek and mild. Some men just don't give a shit.

But for the most part, Kim, you and I are in agreement. but in the end I think the thing to remember is that it is not about hte victim, it is usually about the perpetrator wanting control. it's like why old women and young kids get raped.. it is not about sex, but more about control.

I agree with you SS on the perpetrator wanting control and then the only defense against such a predator is not to appear vulnerable or attract his attention in any way.

Unfortunately in these parts of the world, the onus is on women not to become victims as there is not much recourse once victimised.