Shame on the Egyptian Streets
Malak Kira
What used to be a respectful, educated, and religious society in Egypt is now facing a decline in moral values. What is happening right now is totally the opposite of who Egyptians used to be. Harassment is becoming a pressing issue, and it is getting worse each day. Respect is diminishing every day from the streets. Some men give themselves the right to leave a black mark in the lives of Egyptian women. Freedom of movement and personal safety is disappearing among the Egyptian community. Even veiled women are victims of the men’s degrading actions.
On October 23rd , over Eid-El-Fitr break thousands of young men followed three girls around the streets of central Cairo. The victims were veiled and unveiled wo
men who happened to be on their own. As the police failed to protect these women from getting harassed and tortured by these men, shopkeepers and taxi drivers had to intervene to save their lives. These Egyptian men who sexually harass women do not view women as their equal. They feel more muscular when they have power over women. They treat women as their servants with no respect nor privacy. They always have the impression that it is tolerable for them to do whatever they want just because they are “men”. According to the statistics released by the Egyptians Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR), sixty-two percent of men admitted that they have sexually harassed a woman. Eighty-three percent of Egyptian women experienced harassment. Various Egyptian men have lost their boundaries and limit; they have harassed veiled women and even the women who are wearing the niqab. Such acts force women to blame themselves for what they have done to them. These harassers claim that women bring it to themselves. It is time for the women in Egypt to have their voices heard.
The massive cost of marriage and the fact that sex outside marriage is forbidden might explain why this is happening. A mixture of desire and hatred exists in the minds of these men, desire for what they want and hatred at what they cannot have. Egyptian culture is becoming violent. The belief that the only way they can get what they desire is by violence and cruelty; the belief that respect cannot get you what you want anymore is disturbing. The government needs to create a new law that clearly defines sexual harassment as a crime.
According to another survey by ECWR, ninety-eight percent of foreign women that visited Egypt experienced sexual harassment. What do foreign women have to say about Egypt when they go back to their country? Is this the impression Egyptians want to give about their country? These people are ruining their country's reputation and should get penalized. The expressions that we used to hear while growing up, such as "Egypt is the mother of the world" and "Egypt is the land of protection and safety" are contradicted by the actions of these men. It is a shame that moral values have gone to the worse, what happened to the Egyptians?
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