65 women were saved from sexual violation during Eid:

[DJKeefy]

65 women were saved from sexual violation during Eid: pressure group.

I Saw Harassment released the results of its four day long campaign to fight sexual harassment during Eid Al-Adha.

I Saw Harassment said in a report on Friday that a total of 65 incidents of sexual violation were stopped during Eid Al-Adha, including two cases of mob harassment.

Of the four day holiday, the third witnessed the most incidents of sexual violation with 29 incidents taking place on that day. It is followed by the second day of Eid in which 23 incidents occurred. There were nine incidents on the first day and four on Friday which saw the least number of people going out compared to the first three days.

A four day long campaign called Warriors against Harassment was activated by the I Saw Harassment initiative on Tuesday, the first day of Eid Al-Adha and ran until Friday. I Saw Harassment had said that during the religious holiday it would “be providing awareness and spreading the concepts of equality and renunciation of violence.”

The campaign members were situated in “hotbeds and places in which we monitored high rates of sexual violence crimes against women and girls during Eid-Al-Adha 2012 and Eid-Al-Fitr (Lesser Bairam) 2012,” a statement by I Saw Harassment read. The members were in Downtown Cairo and its vicinity, which is particularly infamous for sexual harassment and sexual violence during Eid.

Several anti-sexual harassment groups had geared up ahead of Eid Al-Adha last year in a joint effort to stop sexual harassment during the holiday in which certain streets sexual harassment rates peak.

I Saw Harassment said there was a stark contrast to the way men and women reacted to the awareness campaigns on sexual harassment with women responding at higher rates that reached 95 percent at times and men responding at declining rates of around 30 percent.

I Saw Harassment made a set of recommendations to combat harassment including that the Cabinet consults with feminist groups to urgently pass a law that defines and criminalises sexual harassment and includes mechanisms to protect and support victims. It also called on the Ministry of Interior to activate the role of the violence-against-women department which was launched by Minister of Interior Mohamed Ibrahim in May.

The initiative called on girls and women to resist and hold on to their right to safe streets that are free of sexual violence.

Source: http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/10/1 ... ure-group/

[LovelyLadyLux]

Step in the right direction if this became Policy vs a Campaign. Be interested in knowing how sexual harrassment was defined.

Pretty disgusting that sexual violence is common against 'girls'......and by this I am thinking they mean the 11yr to 14yr group...???

Also very telling that women identify sexual harrassment at a reate 3x that of men (who basically seem fairly oblivious to it)

IMO in Egyptian life what happens in the family stays in the family and outsiders are extremely reluctant to get involved in what happens in the family home between husband and wife. Maybe this is more related to DV between husband and wife. You just don't stick your nose anywhere close to another family's business. Flat full stop period - one Egyptian is just not going to tell another Egyptian how to treat his wife. Is this a value of non-interference stronger in men than women hence their reluctance to even see sexual harrassment let alone report it? OR do men see it equally but because of this value just do not react to what they see as they define this as being the problem of somebody else and they are not to interfere?

[carrie]

Don't know if it is classified as sexual harrassment but today walking along the corniche, where the cars cant go, a boy must have been all of 12 told me I was sexy, actually he said it twice. I did offer to lend him my glasses, poor kid must be half blind or completely bonkers.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Sadly that is learned behaviour, could be deemed harrassing if you felt uncomfortable with the verbal intrusion to your being.

Wonder what this kid thought he would achieve by saying that to you? What do you think he was really going for? I mean there are different motivations behind any verbalization or behaviour or action. Wonder what the kid really wanted the outcome to be? To have you swoon and fall into his arms in a passionate embrace? OR To see your expression of horror at his words? OR In someway just make a connection with you for future expoitation? Hardly think a 12 yr old would/could envision that much of a set up but maybe he is being pressured by a brother or parent or ??? Who knows what he has been exposed too........sad to hear another 'kid' has been robbed of his childhood.

[Dusak]

Step in the right direction if this became Policy vs a Campaign. Be interested in knowing how sexual harrassment was defined.

Pretty disgusting that sexual violence is common against 'girls'......and by this I am thinking they mean the 11yr to 14yr group...???

Also very telling that women identify sexual harrassment at a reate 3x that of men (who basically seem fairly oblivious to it)

IMO in Egyptian life what happens in the family stays in the family and outsiders are extremely reluctant to get involved in what happens in the family home between husband and wife. Maybe this is more related to DV between husband and wife. You just don't stick your nose anywhere close to another family's business. Flat full stop period - one Egyptian is just not going to tell another Egyptian how to treat his wife. Is this a value of non-interference stronger in men than women hence their reluctance to even see sexual harrassment let alone report it? OR do men see it equally but because of this value just do not react to what they see as they define this as being the problem of somebody else and they are not to interfere?

From what I'm told from my friend, [sorry its her again] it is quiet common, to get family members involved in family disputes concerning the beating of a wife or children. They usually approach a respected other member of the family, not residing within the aggrieved woman's home to mediate and discuss the problems. Or even bring in the Imam. The violence usually returns , but some, I am told, see the error of their ways and attempt to change. Not all believe in beating women and girls. The usual problem, again so I am told, is the lack of money in the household that creates massive amounts of tension, that invariably leads to violence. One of the biggest factors of this money = violence, is the daughters marriage when money is tight on both sides, daughters family wanting to receive more, the other side wanting to give less.

[Kevininabydos]

65 women were saved from sexual violation during Eid:

To me this begs the question:
How many were not saved?

65 out of how many million women and girls?

[Glyphdoctor]

"Girls" are unmarried females.

[LovelyLadyLux]

From what I'm told from my friend, [sorry its her again] it is quiet common, to get family members involved in family disputes concerning the beating of a wife or children. They usually approach a respected other member of the family, not residing within the aggrieved woman's home to mediate and discuss the problems. Or even bring in the Imam. The violence usually returns , but some, I am told, see the error of their ways and attempt to change. Not all believe in beating women and girls. The usual problem, again so I am told, is the lack of money in the household that creates massive amounts of tension, that invariably leads to violence. One of the biggest factors of this money = violence, is the daughters marriage when money is tight on both sides, daughters family wanting to receive more, the other side wanting to give less.

Ohh Dusak - I can see you're not really up on the dynamics of domestic violence and abusive relationships....

[Dusak]

From what I'm told from my friend, [sorry its her again] it is quiet common, to get family members involved in family disputes concerning the beating of a wife or children. They usually approach a respected other member of the family, not residing within the aggrieved woman's home to mediate and discuss the problems. Or even bring in the Imam. The violence usually returns , but some, I am told, see the error of their ways and attempt to change. Not all believe in beating women and girls. The usual problem, again so I am told, is the lack of money in the household that creates massive amounts of tension, that invariably leads to violence. One of the biggest factors of this money = violence, is the daughters marriage when money is tight on both sides, daughters family wanting to receive more, the other side wanting to give less.

Ohh Dusak - I can see you're not really up on the dynamics of domestic violence and abusive relationships....

This was only in relation to a specific point in question on here. In the UK my wife and I dealt with the aftermath of the most horrific kinds of family abuse for several years. I remember my friend saying a few years ago that we, the Europeans, only think we know what life is like in the typical Egyptian household, you have to live it to understand the true meaning.

[carrie]

What appalls me are Egyptian TV soap opera's, I have seen quite a few and often the woman of the house gets a smack for nagging or some such, it is passed over as if nothing has happened, perhaps they could make a soap where the man is shown to be a bully and a coward, in my opinion less than a man.
A woman I know is often beaten by her Egyptian husband, when speaking to another Egyptian man about it he asked "why does she stay, if a man becomes angry with a woman then he should walk away and return when he has calmed down, never hit her." So not all are the same. But too many think it is acceptable.

[Dusak]

To hit a woman is a cowards way of putting a full stop on the end of a one sided debate. One with a severe lack of understanding and intelligence on the mans part. A creator of pain and unhappiness. But they also create a new species, a woman with an unparalleled level of forgiveness and a thought provoking ability concerning immediate acceptance of the meaning of the word love.

[Bombay]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24661390

BBC witnesses sex attack suspect 'branded' in Cairo

Sexual violence in Egypt has reached epidemic proportions, according to human rights campaigners.

Hania Moheeb was attacked by a mob of molesters while protesting in Tahrir Square last January, at the anniversary of Egypt's revolution.

Another woman, Ms Abdel Aleem was assaulted on two separate occasions in Tahrir Square, the second attack was so brutal she had a miscarriage.

Orla Guerin reports from Cairo.