Today, Egyptian and Lebanese bloggers and activists are campaigning online to end sexual harassment of women on their streets. Sexual harassment is a rampant problem in the Middle East and is an especially common phenomenon on the streets of Cairo. Nearly all women have had to endure harassment in one form or another, be it verbal or physical, indecent exposure or unwarranted staring. Being modestly dressed in conservative Muslim attire like the hijab, the traditional Muslim head scarf, or even the niqab, a loose garment which covers the entire body except the eyes, is not a deterrent. According to a 2008 survey of 1,010 women conducted by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, 98 percent of foreign women and 83 percent of Egyptian women have been sexually harassed. The problem is so bad that various embassies, including the British foreign office, say Egypt is one of the countries with the highest number of cases reported to embassy staff regarding sexual offences against visiting women. Despite their role in Egypt's January 25 Revolution, women's rights have not improved. This is reflective of the general attitude toward sexual harassment in Egypt, which lays blame at the door of the victim. In the same study conducted by the ECWR, up to 53 percent of Egyptian men blamed women for “bringing it on themselves." To counter this phenomenon, a group of Middle Eastern bloggers and anti-harassment activists – spearheaded by the Egyptian website HarassMap and Lebanon's Resist Harassment – launched a campaign to dedicate one day to an online campaign against harassment. They are encouraging people to blog and tweet about the phenomenon with the hashtag #endSH. There is also a Facebook page on which bloggers can post links to their posts. Some have expressed doubts about the effectiveness of an online campaign. Others have countered those doubts. Activist Ahmed Awadallah tweeted, "To those questioning initiative to highlight sexual harassment, silence was never a solution to any problem. It starts with speaking!" And the stigma surrounding speaking out about the problem only aggravates it. Laws intended to fight sexual harassment are rarely implemented. According to a Reuters poll, only 3 percent of women ever report incidents of sexual harassment. The case of Nuha el-Ostaz, who in 2008 who managed to get to get a man jailed for sexual harassment in Egypt, is the exception to the rule. It is likely that if more women were brave enough to speak out, the situation would improve. That is the bloggers' goal. In March, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's government drafted a new law against sexual assault and harassment with the penalty being, in some cases, the death sentence. Yet as long as victims are afraid to speak out, the law is useless. The dialogue will not end on Twitter. Nazra, an organization for feminist studies, in cooperation with HarassMap is organizing a discussion on Tuesday under the slogan, “What has not been said.” They invite bloggers and activists to discuss, “What happens after the blogging and tweeting day against Sexual Harassment and Gender Violence in Egypt?”
