On Wednesday November 15th 2006, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) organized within the bounds of Ibn Rushd Salon a seminar on “Sexual Harassment in Down Town Cairo: A social, security, political, sexual, or religious problem?!”, at CIHRS headquarters.
The seminar discussed organized collective assaults on Egyptian women’s dignity through collective harassment crimes that took place on the “black” feast day!
A number of speakers participated in this seminar, including Dr. Gehad Ouda, Professor of international relations, Helwan University, Dr. Dalal Al Birzi, Lebanese writer and sociologist, Mrs. Nehad Aboul Qomsan, Director of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights, and Mr. Nabil Sharaf El Din, journalist and managing editor of “Ilaf” website.
Political experts and human rights activists having participated in the seminar unanimously agreed that sexual harassment having taken place in downtown Cairo streets during the “Lesser Bairam” (Eid Al Fitr) days were the natural byproduct of State using sexual harassment for the first time in the referendum to amend Article 76 of the Egyptian Constitution on May 25th 2005.
Participants held security forces responsible for such incidents, because they gave precedence to political security that serves a slight portion of the ruling elite while utterly ignoring social security of the overwhelming majority of people.
Mrs. Nehad Aboul Qomsan, Director of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights asserted that the Center has been receiving for five years now complaints from women and girls being harassed, but the toll went remarkably up since the 25th of May 2005 referendum events.
Mrs. Aboul Qomsan continued, “Ever since, we’ve been receiving very weird complaints about gruesome insults addressed to ladies, culminating with rape, which included girls, veiled women and women wearing face veil”.
Mrs. Nehad drew the attention to the fact that the magnitude of harassment in Egypt witnessed both a quantitative and qualitative change, especially after the May 25th incidents, when the regime used this weapon politically for the first time in downtown Cairo streets, whereby some female journalists have been dragged in the street and there were attempts by security forces to rape them in front of the Journalists Syndicate headquarters.
She pointed out to the results of complaints received by the Center, which indicated that the largest category of victims of sexual harassment in Egypt is working women, and girls in schools and universities. She stressed that nearly 40% of complaints of harassment filed by expatriates and staff of foreign embassies in Egypt pointed fingers of accusation to security personnel responsible for guarding those embassies. Aboul Qomsan threw the blame for downtown Cairo incidents during the feast on the security service, revealing that there was almost no presence of any security personnel at any point.
She said, “The response of police forces to reports of sexual harassment does not in any way preserve the security of this country, nor individuals’ safety on the streets. Not only this, but sometimes girls are victims of harassment inside police stations that are supposed to protect them”.
She added, “Unfortunately, the focus is on political security. Social safety is almost absent from the streets of Cairo”. She maintained that we are facing a case of societal disintegration and devastating chaos, which would lead to further collapse. The end result would ultimately be that human beings are placed outside the sphere of concern in this country.
Mr. Nabil Sharaf El Din, managing editor of “Ilaf” website said, “The incident of sexual harassment that downtown Cairo had witnessed during the last feast are real and not made up”. “I served as a police officer for 16 years”, he continued, “and I think there are three major reasons behind this incident”.
He indicated that the first reason is the flaw of security performance, which overindulges in political security, and focuses on ceremonies and guard duties, while totally overlooking criminal security.
Mr. Sharaf El Din drew the attention to the second reason behind the incident, namely, Cairo demographic features, which have seriously deteriorated in recent years.
Dr. Dala Al Birzi, Lebanese writer and sociologist spoke and said, “Regardless of the disintegration and chaos that are prevailing at the moment, Islamic political forces are holding sway over the minds and not over political power”.
Al Birzi explained that that Arab World is currently witnessing a crisis in the relationship between the two sexes, and indicated that this crisis is existential in nature, and encompasses the individual’s desires, dreams and aspirations. She also mentioned that the absence of any prospective, dreams, hope and future vision are the reasons behind this crisis.
Dr. Gehad Ouda, Professor of International Relations, Helwan University, considered this crisis to be in large part the outcome of the cultural crisis that Egypt is facing. He maintained that the Egyptian society has become closed, and that public order is facing an enormous predicament, where private interests have prevailed over general interests.
Ouda added, “The phenomenon is not only one of sexual harassment, but is also related mainly to the downfall of civil life. There are many forces at play in society, and their main objective is to haul the state and turn it into another state. Thus, they are always seeking to shake its public order”.
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