As a new sexual-harassment map goes online in Egypt, will the country's streets ever be safe for women, asks Mai Samih In the wake of complaints from women of sexual harassment in public places, activists have come up with a means of warning women of potentially dangerous harassment spots. This is done through an online map, harassmap.org, that is the brainchild of the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR). The map pinpoints such spots and sends out details of them via SMS messages to mobile phones. "The idea started because most of the people volunteering on the project used to work on campaigns against sexual harassment, aiming to prevent young women from being subjected to verbal and other types of harassment," explains Engy Ghozlan, the project coordinator for ECWR who has been working with other volunteers on the site. While numerous efforts have been made over the past five years to tackle sexual harassment of women, including media campaigns and calls for legislation on the issue, up to now no specific law governs the matter. Instead, sexual harassment falls under the law on indecent assault, and the first conviction under this law was only made in 2008, when a man was sentenced to three years in prison for the indecent assault of director Noha Rushdi. However, the extent of the problem may be reflected in the comments of one female university student, who complains of incidents that have happened to her and her friends in the streets of Cairo. "Two incidents have happened to me," she says. "In the first one, I had just come out of a bookshop in Mohamed Farid Street downtown, and when I started to leave a man came running after me and asked me for my telephone number and address. Two of my friends were with me, and we were all afraid to continue in case he was stalking us. We all went to the metro station together, and my friends called me later to make sure that I had reached home safely." "The other time was on the underground. I was going towards the platform when a guy came running after me begging me for my name, my place of work and my mobile number." A female medical student also tells of an incident that went far beyond merely verbal harassment, saying that she had been grabbed in the street by a man in front of the hospital where she was being trained. How can the new website help? Ghozlan explains that all incidents of sexual harassment that are reported to the group are translated onto the website. "There are several ways in which women can use the site," she explains. "They can send an SMS with the place, time and type of harassment that they experienced. We will then review this and put it on the map with the time the woman was harassed. She will also receive a reply to her SMS advising her what to do. She might want to file a police report, for example, in which case she might need legal support, or she might need psychological support. She can also talk to someone via the site." In Egypt, capital punishment can be the penalty for those convicted of the most serious forms of sexual assault, such as rape, though this can also be punished by many years in prison. Cases of verbal harassment, on the other hand, can lead to sentences of one to three months in prison, despite the psychological effects of this form of abuse on the victim. In some cases, a victim of sexual harassment can even be criticised for making herself desirable to men, despite the fact that she is the one who has suffered the abuse. Aside from the formal legal system, in some areas customary law also prescribes significant penalties for sexual harassment or abuse. In Sinai, for example, customary law can go as far as to demand that the tongue of the harasser be cut out in cases of verbal abuse. Either that, or the family of the perpetrator is asked to pay LE16,000, or 20 camels, as well as a possible fine of LE5,000 for breaking customary law. According to Amina Shafiq of the National Council for Women, NGOs have a particularly important role to play in combating sexual harassment. "Civil society carries out pioneering activities in Egypt. Whether directed against men or women, violence is endemic in Egypt, and civil society organisations have a legitimate aspiration to combat it," she says, particularly by raising awareness among young people. One thing that has changed for the better in recent years in Ghozlan's view is that women today are able to talk freely about cases of harassment. "When we first started mentioning sexual harassment, it was a huge taboo," she says. The group even had to avoid the term when speaking to the media, using the word "bothering" instead. Nowadays, circumstances have changed, partly as a result of the work carried out by such organisations. "Education is important," Ghozlan says, "because if a girl is brought up to be free and to talk freely, and not hide behind a male figure, she will feel at ease talking about problems she encounters. However, there are still some women who are scared to talk about such things, and some families do not accept that women have the right to speak out." "I think there is still some time to go before we reach the point where all women can speak about what they face and have their say about the problems they face." Women were not created to be silent beings, on a mission to stay silent about whatever happens to them out of fear of action being taken against them, Ghozlan explains. Silence is no solution to the problem of sexual harassment, and it cannot improve the status of women. Ghozlan believes that the data gathered by the website could be beneficial to many other parties. "The information will be out there," she says, "and NGOs and other groups are welcome to use it. The police could use it to detect areas where sexual harassment takes place, for example, and to stop it from spreading." For the moment, the project is still in its early stages. "We must wait and see, but we might be able to cooperate with government bodies or international bodies and NGOs, but we need to evaluate things thoroughly first," she says.
