The organization I work for here in Cairo, the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, has received a lot of media attention in the past couple of years for raising awareness of what it calls a "social cancer" in Egypt, sexual harassment. Here are some snippets from a great comprehensive article on ECWR's efforts:
"The government has started to recognize that there is a problem of sexual harassment in Egypt. Up until ECWR’s report, the national authorities largely denied claims that sexual harassment was taking place in the country.
In a notorious 2006 incident in downtown Cairo, a number of Egyptian bloggers filmed a mob of young men attacking a group of women, tearing their clothes off. But little attention was paid to the incident by the Egyptian authorities, who brushed the incident under the carpet.
Three years later, following ECWR’s groundbreaking report and the landmark sentencing of a man to jail time for sexually harassing a woman in a Cairo street, it seems that the authorities are finally moving on the subject."
"The government has started to recognize that there is a problem of sexual harassment in Egypt. Up until ECWR’s report, the national authorities largely denied claims that sexual harassment was taking place in the country.
In a notorious 2006 incident in downtown Cairo, a number of Egyptian bloggers filmed a mob of young men attacking a group of women, tearing their clothes off. But little attention was paid to the incident by the Egyptian authorities, who brushed the incident under the carpet.
Three years later, following ECWR’s groundbreaking report and the landmark sentencing of a man to jail time for sexually harassing a woman in a Cairo street, it seems that the authorities are finally moving on the subject."
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