I have been living in Egypt for one year from 2007 to 2008 and then I relocated here in summer 2009. So in summer 2011 it will be three years that I spent here. Sexual harassment and especially street harassment was always a big topic for me, my foreign friends and my Egyptian friends (at least thefemale ones). It is really disturbing how many stories you have yourself as a woman living in Cairo and how many stories you hear from others. After the revolution I believed for some weeks that now the country will change, now maybe also the men will do their part and make the streets saver for women and stop catcalling and groping women randomly on the streets. But right now I feel that it is like it was before, maybe slightly better than in 2008, the year that I remember worst in case of street harassment. But this could also just be due to the fact that now I am not riding the metro anymore on a regular basis and I am trying to avoid walking around by actually going from one place to the other by taxi (and hoping that the taxi driver will not make sleazy comments about if I am married or not etc.). If anybody asks me “how do you like Egypt, what is good what is bad”, I am being honest and talk about the good and the bad things, and if I could change one thing it would be the guys' behavior towards women. As a woman you can't walk down a street without somebody making comments about you, a car passing by you and slowing down and the driver staring at you through his window, guys walking behind you and following you. You have to be constantly on guard and as a women then you start walking around with a grim face, being unfriendly to everyone, to make sure nobody thinks you are giving invites for indecent approaches. And still it will happen. You start to think about what to wear and how to change your style, and in the end it won't make a difference anyways. Men cannot imagine how much it is disturbing if you are under attention all the time, if you cannot walk for 5 minutes to the next supermarket without being commented or stared at by random men in the street and then in the supermarket it might happen that the workers there just go on with what the people in the streets did. I hate it if I talk about the problem with Egyptians and they tell me: “just ignore it”. How the hell can you ignore being treated badly every day in public and then nobody even stands up to help. I heard this advice from Egyptian women, too. Just look down and ignore it. But I don't want to ignore it and look down as if I am the person who has to feel ashamed. The only ones who should be ashamed are all these guys that make women's life hell if she doesn't have a car or the money to use taxis or if she just likes to walk for some meters every now and then. But if the general male opinion is like the one stated in an article in Masry Al Youm recenly (“The women being harassed are not respectable women,” says Ibrahim Said, a plumber from Helwan, “and proof of that is in the fact that our wives and sisters don't get harassed.”), then nothing will ever change. Those men just give the responsibility to the women and find explanations like “oh, she is wearing something tight, too short, she is not veiled, she shakes her behind too much when she is walking, why is she outside alone at night, why is she outside anyways alone etc. etc.” I barely heard anybody talking about that the problem lies in the men's behavior, something pretty obvious I would say. And for sure this plumber's wife and sisters will never tell him what happened to them because they will be afraid that he thinks they behaved in a “not respectable” way and probably feel guilty. Other responses I got from Egyptian guys when I tried to talk about the problem where things like, oh, don't take it personal, it happens to all women in the country (great, so that's why you just join in????) or hey, this happens everywhere in the world (which is just not true, I traveled a lot and haven't experienced anything similar in any other country, not in Europe or Australia where in summer lots of women are wearing short skirts, short pants, sleeveless shirts etc. and street harassment is not happening at all (I grew up in Germany and remember once in my whole teenage and twen years one guy whistled at me, ONCE in ten years) and as another example even in Yemen, where all women are wearing Abeya, almost all are wearing a veil and a lot of them a face veil, even there, as a female foreigner in a group of women all not wearing a veil, we were treated with respect on the streets and could walk around without getting harassed on a trip in 2009). One Egyptian guy asked me: what? Even now after the revolution it didn't change? NO, it didn't. I am more angry about all the articles on the decrease of tourism and its economic impact, etc., when I see how the tourists are treated, especially women. I have a new flatmate for some weeks now. She was recently at the pyramids where a guy tried to grope her and when she started yelling at him none of the by standing water and coke sales men helped her. And then people complain that tourism decreased. She will definitely not go home and tell her friends to travel to Egypt. I got groped at Khan El Khalili once, another typical place for tourists. This all makes me very sad, because I love the country, I consider it my second home, and I met great people in Egypt but the constant harassment will spoil the nations reputation sooner or later and will probably decrease the number of tourists even more. And aside from this aspect it is a huge problem for Egyptian women, too. To my opinion if not so many Egyptian women don't talk about harassment, it doesn't automatically mean that it doesn't happen to them. They might not know that life could be different for them and maybe think it is “normal” or they might feel ashamed because a lot of people say it is the woman's fault if harassment happens or they might be afraid that their husband or father will not allow them anymore to go out on their own so they prefer to bear it in silence and have a little bit more freedom instead. It would fill pages and pages if I listed all the things that happened to me and it would fill more pages if I tell all the things that happened to my friends (Egyptian and foreigners, Muslims and Christians, veiled and non-veiled, by the way). So I am just listing the things that happened to me after the revolution (I will try to remember all) and I will give a summary of the “highlights” of incidents of the last 3 years. Things that happened to me after the revolution: - Cars passing by me and slowing down next to me so that the driver and his friends can stare at me (happened around 10 times) in Mohandisseen - Motorcycles passing by shouting comments (20 times? Sorry, I didn't count, but it is happening almost every time I am outside) - Cars passing by and the driver making comments out of his windows (I remember 3 times, but could also be more often) in Mohandisseen - A car passed by me and a friend and they shouted Fuck You out of the window at full voice in Midan Lubnan - A truck driver passed by me and a friend in Coptic Cairo and slowed down next to us and started to talk, when I told him to be silent and go away he drove off calling me crazy (dialog happened in Arabic) - Two guys were walking behind me and a friend and started to say things like 3ssal etc. so I told them in Arabic that were are not talking to them and they better leave. Then they said in Arabic, oh we didn't know you understand Arabic, I am sorry. (so excuse me, can any guy who is harassing women please explain what is the point of this: you make comments about a women on public in a language that you think she doesn't understand ?????). Happened between Dokki and Mohandisseen, close to Sh. Sudan& Nadi El Seid - Guys making comments about me (happens at least every second day, sometimes several times a day, depending on how much time I spent walking outside, and it doesn't mean that I am having big walks, but I need to walk to the next bigger street to go into a bus or a taxi and I need to walk the 500 m to the next supermarket to do my grocery shopping, nevertheless this is enough time to pass enough idiots on the street who make comments about you), so you can calculate how often this happened after the revolution, happens everywhere I go, I am around mostly in the area of Mohandisseen, Zamalek, DownTown and no matter if I wear long sleeves and wide skirts or pants and t-shirts - A guy following two friends of mine and me in downtown, walking behind us and changing directions whenever we changed them looking at us, until I stopped and told him to go away and leave us in peace. (Downtown, around Sh Bustan) - A guy following me talking to me behind my back in English several times (Where are you from, beautiful etc.) until I turned around and told him to leave me in peace and that I am actually not talking to him, I yelled at him and then a women and her daughter came and helped me. He then said, I don't know what her problem is, I am working here, this is my street. (okay, interesting, so guys who work in a street own that street and therefore have the right to annoy women with their comments when she is walking on “their” street ????) - A guy sitting in the red carriage for women in the metro (which according to my Egyptian Arabic teacher who is riding the metro every day, happens daily to her, too) - Two young guys were on their way to enter the red carriage for women in the metro but a friend of mine told them in Arabic that this is for women only and then they went to another one and pretended they heard this for the first time (maybe you can make a little campaign in cooperation with other newspapers, that the red carriage is INDEED only for women also in the evening, and that it would be appreciated as well if the men don't jump in the green carriage as soon as the time allows it. Busses for women only would be great,too; I mean it is sad, that this is actually needed, but I think as a short-term solution this would help a lot) - As I mentioned I have a new flatmate for 4 weeks now (so also AFTER the revolution) and she got verbally harassed every day in the street where we are living. I sent my bowab twice to talk to the guys and nothing changed. So I went on my own making a big scene and telling the guys around that at least in my street where I live I want to be left in peace and that I am not going to accept that my friend is harassed every single time she is leaving the house or returning. So in the end it helped but what most guys said first where things like: “oh she is exaggerating”, “mhm, it is not us,it is other people who are not living here”, “well, just ignore it” (very easy to suggest as a men who has no imagination how this makes you feel), “oh this is a dangerous area, if you don't like it, move somewhere else” (this comment hit me right into my guts, as I have been living in this street for over a year, and I don't think it is a dangerous area and I always thought it is a nice neighborhood, and instead of helping, the guy just wants to get out of trouble and suggests that we move away). So in the end I insisted that they need to help us and if it is not them harassing then at least don't hang around watching it happening . - A guy made indecent comments about me so I asked him, if he is not a Muslim and he answered with a big smile “yes, I am a Muslim, and I am very proud to be one”. So other guys standing around came to me and apologized, but none of them told the guy that he is wrong in his behavior. This I something I have witnessed several times, if I speak out and make a scene because a guy harassed me , if people interfere – IF people interfere and are not only watchingthey come to me and say, we are sorry, malesh, even if they didn't do anything. But only once it happened that somebody asked the harasser to apologize or that someone told the harasser that he is wrong or that someone stood up and told the harasser that I am right. Only ONCE. So it is generally good if people feel that it is wrong and try to express it towards me by apologizing but it would be more helpful if they actually approached the harasser and explain to HIM that it is wrong. - After entering a taxi one night a car followed my taxi all the way to my home (and I live in a very small side street, so there is no chance for coincidence). My taxi driver made me aware of it and he was very helpful and offered to wait in his car until I am inside the house. Some of the “highlights” of harassment stories of the last 3 years: - A guy groped my behind while I was walking in male company in bright daylight in down town. - My behind got groped another time in Khan el Khalili - A friend of mine got groped between her legs by a taxi driver (happened also after the revolution) - A friend of mine got touched by a guy in her elevator, she managed to escape him and made a scene at the bowab after she and the guy had left the elevator. So the guy said she is lying, but she insisted that it happened. So the bowab made the guy swear on the Koran that it didn't happen and he swore on the Koran that it didn't happen. So he got away with it and the bowab was probably thinking she is a liar. - A friend of mine was harassed by supermarket employees (Hawary, Mohandisseen) - A guy harassed me in Alfa Market, Zamalek, so I went to the cashier and told the guy there, please help me this guy is making nasty comments about me. Meanwhile this guy came and the cashier actually told him to go to another cashier to be served. So I was really angry, telling the first cashier, excuse me, I just asked you for help, because this guy was harassing me. He just said that this is not in his responsibility as he is not the security personnel. I felt very helpless and very frustrated so I came back some hours later with an Egyptian male friend who talked to the supervisor and made a pretty big scene which in the end led to the fact, that three days of the cashier's salary were taken away as his punishment. Which was a little justice, but still it was very depressing to know that if I as a woman complain nobody helps me and that I have to send a man so that the issue is taking seriously. - Getting comments by actual Tourist Police or other police men Which leads to a point I want to mention, too: I asked my Arabic teacher who is constantly harassed, too (she is veiled by the way): can we not report the car plates of the harassers to the police? Her answer was: even the police are harassing so how can we go report harassment to them? So, these are my little stories and I what I know from my Egyptian female friends as well as my foreign female friends those things are happening daily to all kind of women in Cairo, no matter what they wear (e.g. my Arabic teacher is harassed constantly who is veiled and wearing Abeya and no make-up in her home area) or where they are from or how they look like. What especially disgusts me is that also all kind of men harass women here (men in galabeya, men in modern clothes, young teenagers, guys in their early twenties, guys in their 40ies and 50ies, poor guys, rich guys in their fancy cars) and then all the explanations we hear just don't make sense anymore (e.g. oh he doesn't have money so he can't get married so he is sexually frustrated (how about you help yourself to get rid of your sexual frustrations instead of making women pay for your frustration, and I am pretty sure that not all harassers in their mid 40ies or 50ies are unmarried, single guys), or oh he is poor and uneducated (it doesn't take a lot of knowledge to know that harassment is wrong, and even basic Koran lessons will teach that the guys should lower the gaze; and then how come that even guys who attend university harass?). So many people are talking about the decency of women, and what they should do and shouldn't and what they should wear and what not etc. but how come there is no public discussion on what the men should do and especially should NOT do? I would like to see campaigns in Arabic in mewspapers and maybe TV channels that mumbling or calling 3ssal, helwa, 2utta, I wanna have sex, hi, where you from, beautiful or anything else including comments on any of a woman's body parts will not make a women feel complimented, nor is she appreciating it, nor does any woman ask for those comments, nor will it bring any women to be attracted to the man making these comments. The only thing that will happen is that she is disgusted, ashamed, or angry, that her day is ruined, or she will get afraid of leaving the house every morning, feeling a constant anxiety that might even affect her health. And yes, harassment is also happening to your sisters, mothers, female friends, fiancés, wifes and daughters. ** This was a letter from a concerned reader and we publish here with no editing. BM
