Every day, Cairo's crowded streets are filled with microbuses and buses, into which commuters are packed like sardines. When they stop, another dozen or so people try to scramble on board. For women, it's a real battle. If they're not strong, they often have to bear being elbowed by the man next to them or even thrown back out onto the street. Maged Ibrahim, a freelance journalist, got wondering what could be done to let women ride public transport without being harassed, ogled at and inappropriately touched. He decided that the solution was to launch a campaign on the social network Facebook, called ‘Campaign for Women-only Means of Transport'. "These days, there is a decline in morals because of the crowding. In the old days, men respected women more than they do today," Ibrahim told the Egyptian Mail in an interview. "My mother is a civil servant and she complains to me every day about the harassment she faces on public transport. Someone must make a firm stand and stop this farce." Ibrahim launched his campaign five months ago. When he came up with this idea, he asked his female relatives and colleagues what they thought. "They were enthusiastic about this idea for boosting women's rights," he said. Sexual harassment of women in Egypt is on the increase and observing the Islamic dress code is no deterrent. Egypt, under pressure from activists, has moved closer to passing laws to crack down on sexual harassment after overcoming initial legislative hurdles, members of parliament said last month. Activists say sexual harassment has been an obstacle to women having a full economic and political role in Egypt, where a 2008 study, made by an NGO called “Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights”, found 83 per cent of those surveyed had been sexually harassed and half said it happened daily. The push for a change in the law gained prominence in 2008 when a truck driver was jailed for sexually harassing a woman, in the country's first case to be brought to court. But all these efforts have been slow to address the issue. On the Cairo Tube trains, there are two carriages for females: one with a long piece of red tape stuck to it is for women only all day, while the other with a long piece of green tape stuck to it is for women only until 9pm, when men can ride it too. In the ‘Campaign for Women-only Means of Transport' group, which has more than 5,000 members of both genders, there is a section in which girls can openly speak about their experiences with harassment. "There are men who even dare to ride the women-only carriage," writes one of the members. "If you tell them that this car is for females, some leave quietly at the next station, while others don't do anything. It's like talking to a brick wall." Another complains of beggars on the Underground, who hang around the women-only carriages, hoping for some compassion. "One day, a blind man entered the [women-only] carriage [I was in]. He moved along the carriage touching us. We realised that he wasn't blind at all. When the police came, he ran away," says another female member. Ibrahim, who studied at Al-Azhar University (the Muslim world's highest seat of learning), says that there is no provision in Egyptian law or Sharia (Islamic law) for women to be isolated. "All I want to do is protect women from harassment," says Ibrahim, 31 and unmarried. Female-only places are the in-thing these days. There are women-only cafés; the two carriages on Tube trains; and so-called Islamic weddings, with a hall for the bride and her female relatives, far away from the hall for the groom and his male relatives and friends. There are also women-only beaches and clinics. A few months ago, Lebanon launched a women-only taxi service because of the harassment women passengers and women drivers otherwise face. Several other countries already had women-only taxis. The male and female members of Ibrahim's group have different views on this issue. Most females joining the group want more female-only transport, while the others are actually against this. The minority consider this to be a setback for women's rights in Egypt. They don't want women-only carriages on the Tube, arguing that this only helps to isolate women. "We should start with improving the morals in Egyptian society. We should bring up our children to respect females and when that happens, there won't be any need for having women-only places for any reason," one woman writes. Most men are also against women-only transport. "Damn you! You want to make life even more difficult for us," is the kind of comment you get from many men on this Facebook group, complaining that women have more rights than they do. Quite a few Arab women have joined the group and are sympathetic with Ibrahim's idea. "Some of our members are Palestinian women, who've called me from their country asking how they can help me in this campaign," he says. Ibrahim dreams of every female in Egypt finding out about his proposal. He wants them all to join his group. "Facebook is like a minbar [pulpit] for announcing any idea. I want millions of females in Egypt to support me, so that my idea can get as far as the People's Assembly [lower house of Egyptian Parliament]," he says enthusiastically. "I will defend them till my very last breath." Will Ibrahim succeed? Only time will tell.
