CAIRO: The “butcher” of Maadi – an upscale Cairo suburb – was sentenced to 45 years in prison on Tuesday in a rare display of punishment over crimes against women in Egypt. According to reports, Mohamed El Sayyed received the sentence after prosecutors argued successfully that he had sexually assaulted at least 9 women in the area, which earned him the nickname in the Maadi area where a majority of his attacks took place. The assaults took place between December 2006 and February, when El Sayyed was arrested. Despite the ruling, which women across Egypt are praising, many Egyptians believe the sentence was too extreme. “It's a bit much,” said Ahmed, a 23-year-old medical student, at a local cafe, “because the kid is only 21-years-old and now he will likely spend the rest of his life, or a good portion of it in prison.” El Sayyed attacked women carrying a knife and attempted to corner them in an effort to assault them, or possibly worse. With sexual harassment in Egypt widespread, women are not too disappointed by the ruling. Some have said this is “far too long in coming.” Nora, a young aspiring journalism student at Cairo university, says she hopes this becomes the norm rather than the exception. “They need a send a message to the young people in this country that the way they deal with women is unacceptable and wrong and there will be punishment for their actions,” she argued. Tuesday's case is one of only a handful of cases where a man has been sentenced to prison. Last fall, Noha Rushdy made international and local headlines after she won a case against a man who had groped her on a Nasr City street. The man was sentenced to three years in prison last October and handed a $900 fine. Women's rights advocates say these cases show that times are changing and cautiously say that it could mark a beginning of a new state of affairs in the country. “Women are moving forward, but it is slow,” said Nehad Abou Komsan, the head of the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, “because for many women they believe it is their fault that they are harassed or assaulted. So hopefully with more cases like Rushdi's, women will be confident to go public.” Time will tell if this is the truth, but for now, El Sayyed will be making the iron bars of a prison cell his home for the next four and a half decades. **for more information on sexual harassment in Egypt, please read Bikya Masr Women BM
