CAIRO: The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights followed up the events of March 8 on the occasion of International Women's Day with great worry. The celebration events started with an initiative of young women and men who gathered in Al Tahrir Square in order to salute female and male martyrs of the Revolution as well as their mothers and to remind the society and decision makers with the necessity of involving women in phases of the democratic transition in Egypt. ECWR participated in supporting this initiative; for female and male activists went to the Square and then a group of antagonistic activists surrounded them to discuss their demands. The gathering reflected at the beginning a civilized way of discussion; however, a number of thugs gathered pretending opposition then it turned to be attack on women and men activists by beating and sexual harassment. ECWR followed up the attempts of submitting police reports to the police stations; however the police stations still do not effectively work. Thus, ECWR announces its total refusal of such acts, and accuses police bodies of taking a reluctant situation towards these acts and towards maintaining security to everybody. The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights demands: · The public prosecutor for conducting immediate investigations on the accident · The Minister of Interior to spread security forces as soon as possible, and to assure the necessity of respecting laws. · Punishing all those who do not do their duties of police officers either by firing them or investigating with them. · Assuming to graduates of Faculty of Law to perform roles of the languid police officers. · Calling the armed forces to support the police in spreading safety in all districts of Egypt. · Adopting a national strategy in order to involve women in all stages of democratic transitions and presenting a letter assuring principles of equality, in order to establish the Egyptian culture that respects women and condemns all forms of discrimination against them. · Revising educational curricula and media statements and making sure that they are free from discrimination against women. ECWR
