The words “I am a harasser” were scrawled over one man's T-shirt after members of the Catch a Harasser group caught him harassing girls in downtown Cairo. The group, launched last year by female and male volunteers, aims to catch those guilty of sexual harassment and publicly shame them. The campaign group has 400 main members. Hatem Shaaban, the coordinator and official spokesman, said that 83 per cent of women in Egypt and 98 per cent of foreign women in the country had been exposed to sexual harassment at least once in their lives, which was why the group had decided to act.
“We decided to fight sexual harassment in Cairo on different occasions, such as the Eid (holiday), election times, protests and demonstrations,” Shaaban said. The group sends out smaller groups of 25 members each to different districts, making their presence felt in order to protect women against possible harassment.
According to Shaaban, bullies who sexually harass women in the streets can find themselves suddenly surrounded by men dressed in fluorescent green jackets emblazoned with anti-sexual harassment logos. “The harasser is then dubbed with the ‘I am a harasser' logo and photographed. His photograph is uploaded onto social networks to warn people against him,” he said.
In addition to such public action, the group has been working in recent months on drafting a new law to combat sexual harassment by imposing harsher penalties. Members of the group are ready to deal with “sexual harassment as a disastrous phenomenon,” Shaaban said.
Members of other groups have slapped harassers, leaving marks on their faces that make them stand out in the crowd. After a verbal dressing-down for their misconduct, such men's particulars are recorded and they are taken to the nearest police station.
Last month, the group recorded 87 verbal harassment cases and six physical harassment ones, together with eight cases of rape. It has set up hotlines for women to call for help at 01018828412, 01280183137 and 01147015570, in case they have been subjected to harassment.
The group has been working with the National Council for Women (NCW) on a new sexual harassment law that contains a broader definition of sexual harassment. Mervat Al-Tellawi, head of the NCW, said that the new law included articles stipulating stiff sentences for recurring offenders and those convicted of verbal or physical offences in the workplace.
Under the new law, sexual harassment would include following women, obscene gestures, and spoken or written comments of a sexual or pornographic nature in public or private places. A person convicted under the law could receive a one-year jail term and/or a minimum fine of LE10,000.
According to the new law, if a person commits another harassment offence within one year of being released from prison he could receive a three to five-year prison sentence and a minimum fine of LE5,000. Sexual harassment in the workplace could result in a three-year prison sentence and a minimum fine of LE10,000.
Members of the Catch a Harasser group are currently preparing for the forthcoming presidential elections, important, Shaaban said, since up to 60 per cent of women participating in public events were subject to sexual harassment.
During the campaign, group members will carry banners carrying slogans such as “no to harassment” and “catch a harasser”. They will also distribute statements to those who sexually harass women saying, “I'm your sister, your mother, your wife, your daughter. Can you accept my humiliation and loss of dignity?”
“Even if you dislike my clothes or the way I walk, this is not an excuse to molest me. Why do you still harass me when I'm veiled, or wearing the niqab? I want to walk freely and safely. I want your respect. There is no excuse for harassment.”
Nehad Abul-Qomsan, head of the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR), said that sexual harassment had become an important problem in Egypt and people had not given it the attention it deserved.
“The police along with other authorities don't care enough about the situation,” Abul-Qomsan said. The streets are not properly patrolled, “and as a result it's not a surprise that anti-harassment groups have become vigilantes, taking the law into their own hands and patrolling the streets to fight the harassment epidemic themselves.”
In late 2013, UN Women in Egypt conducted a study in cooperation with the Cairo Demographic Centre on sexual harassment targeting women in Egypt. The study revealed that 99.3 per cent of the women surveyed had been subjected to one form of harassment or another. 86.8 per cent of them had faced verbal offenses, while 94.1 per cent had been subjected to looks directed at their bodies.
Moreover, 79.2 per cent had suffered from telephone pestering, and 95.9 per cent had been subjected to obscene language. Children below the age of 14 were the victims of around 39 per cent of sexual assault cases.
Commenting on the figures, Mohamed Taymour, founder of the Catch a Harasser group, said that women who had suffered from telephone pestering should call the group on its hotlines and report the number of the caller. “Members of the team will save the harasser's number under the name of ‘I am a harasser' on the mobile application Truecaller via GPS. Whenever the caller tries to offend anyone, the receiver will give the ‘I am a harasser' name, meaning that the receiver can ignore the call,” he said.
Taymour added that unfortunately the police were “not very supportive” of the group's aims, meaning that much of the work had to be done on a voluntary basis. “They believe we are not doing a good job and that we should leave it to them. They also don't like us confronting people in the street,” Taymour said, adding that he and others had been arrested for “attacking” harassers.
“But the police can't keep women safe from harassment. So someone has to step in,” Taymour argued.
For Abul-Qomsan, one of the main problems facing harassed woman is that of proof. “A woman has only one chance to catch a harasser, and this often depends on having the help of others at the right time. Without proof, women cannot make a report or bring a case in court,” she said.
Meanwhile, Al-Tellawi said that one main reason behind the problem of harassment in Egypt was the “social tolerance” of the phenomenon. This tolerance had resulted from a culture of marginalisation and scorn towards women that some men were brought up on, making the violation of a girl's privacy seem tolerable.
“The social acceptance of sexual harassment targeting women appears in many forms. Girls who face verbal or physical assaults in the street are not offered help. Sometimes people just watch the abuse and do not interfere to stop the abuser. Moreover, the girl is often blamed for triggering the harassment,” Al-Tellawi said.
However, she looked forward to greater cooperation in future to deal with the phenomenon. “The NCW is studying the idea of providing groups acting against harassment with workshops to train them on how to deal with harassers on the streets. There will also be training programmes for women to guide them on how to deal when attacked by a harasser.”
For the time being, Taymour said that one challenge his group faced was the lack of suitable premises. “Members of the groups do not have a headquarters. We have few fixed points, such as the underground, downtown areas and a few shopping malls, but we need a headquarters where members can receive calls in a more organised way and can send out patrols to where they are needed.”
Sherine Thabet, an anti-harassment activist, said that in Egypt there could be an “environment encouraging the harassment of girls.” As a result of the protests currently being seen in Egypt, the streets are often crowded and harassers abuse female protesters. During the June 30 Revolution, for example, when protesters filled the streets, the harassment of girls took place sometimes on a collective basis, she added.
“The group is conducting youth workshops to raise awareness of the danger harassment poses to the safety and security of society and to show young people that harassment can affect even their sisters or female relatives,” Thabet said.
The group also aims to offer harassed girls moral support, since some of them suffer from post-traumatic disorders. The symptoms of these include depression, anxiety and self-blame, and specialist doctors can help the girls overcome the psychological crisis that accompanies their abuse, Thabet noted.
