According to a study conducted last year by UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, 99.3 per cent of Egyptian women have been subjected to sexual harassment. But the good news is that a new and much more effective way to combat this trend is now on the rise. The solution, called igmadi, or “get tougher”, comes in the form of courses organised several times a year by self-defence instructor Schirin Salem and Zumba Fitness instructor Emeline Lavender. Body strength and fitness are the key to defence against harassment, things that igmadi takes very seriously. Salem teaches a technique called “wendo”, which focuses not only on the physical aspect of self-defence, but also on the body-language that prevents conflict-situations from arising. “I have never understood why people make a distinction between the value of a man and the value of a woman. In Egypt, this differentiation can be extreme, so women's empowerment must be the way to go,” she explains. Igmadi was inspired by the so-called Pink Party for Fighting Breast Cancer in Egypt, which had the motto “ditch the workout and join the party.” The idea was to stay fit while having fun. “It was a great way to draw people's attention to a cause-related issue,” Lavender says. As group sexual harassment started surfacing at the end of 2012, Lavender and Salem tried to bring together different organisations to face the problem and find ways of solving it. “We combined Zumba Fitness, wendo self-defence and information sessions by cause-related organisations to raise awareness and then we launched igmadi,” Salem said. The ladies-only event first took place in May 2013 and is getting ready for its fourth run in March. Some men send their wives, relatives and friends to attend, even from low-income areas like Dar Al-Salam. On average, about 350 women attend each event. Fatma Atef, one of the attendees at igmadi who is also taking wendo classes, attended her first event to have fun, but it has since changed her life. “You start to know your rights and to take them back, no matter if just with a look or a word, and without humiliating yourself or the harasser himself,” she said. However, Atef does not only get positive feedback. “Some of my male friends tell me to stop being aggressive on the street. But I don't want to provoke anyone. I just want to be ready for whatever or whoever is coming for me,” she explains. Sexual harassment is so widespread that 43 per cent of those who have suffered from it, according to the UN study, have been scared to go out into the streets again. Nevertheless, almost half of those who have been sexually harassed say that the best way to cope with the problem is to try to ignore it. The UK-based Thomson Reuters Foundation conducted research on the status of women worldwide in 2013, concluding that the worst country to be a woman in the Arab world was Egypt. The UN Women study showed that 7.6 per cent of women subjected to sexual harassment had thought of using objects for their own protection. Egyptian women's main tool of defence is the hijab-pin, for example, used to stab at a harasser, before resorting to a slap in the face or even a stun-gun. Sharp instruments or even knives are also popular, whereas stomping on the feet of the perpetrator are next in line. At the end of the list are self-defence sprays and nail files. However, if one cannot correctly use a weapon, its use might backfire, and this is where igmadi comes in. Harassmap, an organisation working to end what it says is the “social acceptability” of sexual harassment in Egypt and is a beneficiary of igmadi, believes that it is important that people discuss the issue from various angles. “At the moment, there is a general trend for women to break the silence and to speak out whenever they get harassed, either by filing police reports, sharing their stories, or asking for help. Igmadi comes at the perfect time to pick up on this trend,” said Eba'a Al-Tamami, head of Harassmap's marketing and communications unit. “Egyptians love music and dancing, and because of that igmadi is an excellent platform to attract women to come and have a good time. The fact that the events are getting bigger and women keep on coming back proves just how much they are needed,” she adds. Has igmadi had any tangible effects? “From event to event, we have seen women grow stronger and more ready to face their harassers,” Salem says. She hears from a lot of the girls who attend her classes that the amount of harassment against them has been decreasing because their whole body language changes once they are more in control of it and the vibes they send out do not attract harassers. “We want women to know that it is not their fault they are harassed. They have every right to be in the streets as well as men,” Lavender says. https://m.facebook.com / igmadi?v=info&refid=17a The writer is a freelance journalist.
