CAIRO - “Clothes bigger than my size, check. Nerdy glasses, check. Headscarf covering any hint of hair, check. Makeup-free face, check. I don't think I can possibly look any plainer. “All I need to do now is to just look straight ahead and I should make it to work without being humiliated." But Sara was wrong. As much as she tried to look unnoticeable, as soon as a group of teenage boys walked past her, she felt a hand reach under her long shirt. The hand grabbed her flesh, right... there, and clenched, for a second. A very long second. Long enough to scar her soul for life, but not long enough for him to be caught. Sara screamed at the top of her lungs and looked around frantically for her assailant. She implored the other passersby to come to her aid, but all she got was indifference and, worse, what seemed like a little mockery. Not one sympathetic face. Not one. Sara's story is one of many told on a video recording at ‘Harassment', an exhibition being held at Darb 17 18 Contemporary Art and Culture Centre, Qasr el-Sham' St., el-Fakhareen, Old Cairo. This exhibition also features paintings, photographs and drawings by 15 artists, not just from Egypt but from Serbia, Germany and England too. According to the organisers, they made an open call from their website to all artists concerned about harassment and many of them co-operated. "We want society to think for a while about the harassment many girls have suffered from, to imagine the stress and disgust they feel. Sometimes women hate their bodies or even being female for this reason," said Enas Abul Qumsan, one of the participants in the exhibition. The photo Enas has contributed to the exhibition, entitled 'A Woman's Body', represents her anger that men should look at a woman as a body, not as a person. "I urge every woman who gets harassed to go to the police, in order to curb this problem," she told The Egyptian Gazette. One painting is entitled 'Stay away... Respect us', while another is entitled 'The streets are ours too!'. There is also a drawing with the title in Arabic, 'It shouldn't have to be necessary to look like a man to feel safe'. The exhibition seems to be crying out for people to get tough on harassment, so women can enjoy that simplest of rights, being able to walk down the street in safety. So is anyone listening? ‘Harassment' is being held at Darb 17 18 Contemporary Art and Culture Centre, Qasr el-Sham' St., el-Fakhareen, Old Cairo. It is open daily except Thursdays and Fridays from 10am-10pm. The exhibition runs until August 20. For more information, please tel.: 02236-10511.
