Comments on: Taking Down Sexual Harassment

By: A Girl’s Personality is the Last Thing You Notice… « Muslimah Media Watch

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:01:39 +0000

[...] harass them. There’s a campaign against sexual harassment on right now with the slogan “Respect Yourself: Egypt still has real men” targeting men and telling them that harassing a woman doesn’t increase their [...]

By: Shame on You: Shame Cartoons « Muslimah Media Watch

Shame on You: Shame Cartoons « Muslimah Media Watch — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:03:35 +0000

[...] What’s worse about the study (which surveyed 2,020 Egyptian men and women and 109 foreign women) is that 62% of Egyptian men surveyed admitted to harassment, and 53% blamed women for bringing it on. Sixty percent of the respondents (male and female) said that scantily clad women are more likely to be harassed though in reality 72% of the women who said they’d been harassed were veiled. But the worse part is the lack of understanding by Egyptian women that the harasser is a criminal and women had a right to dress as they pleased (read more about the study in Faith’s post here and about the “Respect yourself” campaign against sexual harassment in Egypt here. [...]

By: Kawthar

Kawthar — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:58:40 +0000

A few days ago, I was watching an Egyptian channel, and an ad that appeared to target harassment was aired. I was excited, thinking that the government was finally taking serious measures to combat the problem.

My excitement was short-lived though: the ad was apparently part of a series urging Egyptians to not tarnish the image of Egypt in the eyes of tourists.

Here’s one of the videos.

By: Forsoothsayer

Forsoothsayer — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:03:00 +0000

educated in western institutions, and politically liberal. that’s almost it, really. i didn’t think so before i moved back but i was pretty stunned byt the volume of hatred i have heard from almost every corner.

By: Zeynab

Zeynab — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:01:00 +0000

I understand that, as an Egyptian, you have a closer perspective than I might. But I have a really difficult time believing that the only people who believe in equality are westernized. What does that mean, exactly? Western-educated or non-religious?

By: Forsoothsayer

Forsoothsayer — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:20:00 +0000

i just got back from italy, you see, where i felt much more like a PERSON than i ever had living here. it really is very awful. the human rights abuses alone. but the worst part is how horribly ignorant, racist, and sexist nearly everyone is. virtually the ONLY people who aren’t are the totally westernized ones. lends credence to western ideas, but unfortunately a fact of life for anyone with any notion of (say) equality.

By: Zeynab

Zeynab — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:08:00 +0000

Blanket statements! Is it necessary to call your own country sick? Ease up a little. But send us a link to your post, won’t you?

By: Forsoothsayer

Forsoothsayer — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:23:00 +0000

exactly, zeynab! believe you me, whatever this campaign is saying, and whatever the research said, ALMOST EVERYONE in egypt still thinks it’s about clothes, even the women. I’m writing a post about this campaign and the response now. it’s a sick country, sick. and when ramadan arrives! oh, the wealth of harassment then.

By: Duniya

Duniya — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:54:00 +0000

Zeynab:I agree. The whole idea that a woman is somehow responsible for a man’s behaviour is so ingrained in so many societies that it will take a long time to eradicate it. Even here it has been a long time coming. There are instances here even when people blame the woman for being harassed or assaulted because of what she was wearing. But a program that is aiming to help women and not blame them, should be working extra hard to eradicate this way of thinking. And as far as the whole protection thing goes – You’re right about the “real man” concept. It is almost as if they are saying to be a real man you have to protect women. Not, hey men, women are people too and sexual harassment and assault are wrong! They have the right to not be harassed and assaulted. We as human beings have a duty to uphold human rights.

By: Zeynab

Zeynab — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:16:00 +0000

Reading the article, I saw two things that disturbed me:1. “We also target girls,” said 16-year-old activist Nour Hussein. “We tell them that they should not provoke men with their clothes or conduct on the street. In the meantime, we don’t want to put the blame on girls’ clothes. We tell them wear whatever you wish but just try to be moderate.”That’s two opposing statements right there! “We don’t want to put the blame on girls clothes” does NOT compute against “they should not provoke men with their clothes.” The study that the LAT quoted even said that 70% of women harassed wore veils (the woman saying this wears a headscarf, for chrissake!), and yet we’re back to this “oh, don’t provoke them!” putting the onus of blame back on the women. 2. “In the past, men were more gallant and protective. They used to arrest the harasser and punish him by shaving his head, but things are different now,” said Ahmed Salah, the campaign’s moderator. “Our campaign is directed to a passive society and to each man who thinks that nobody would stop him if he harassed a woman on the street. We want to tell the harasser to respect himself and that he will find a man to stand up to him on the street.”And this quote bothers me because the whole idea of men as “gallant and protective [of women]” is still a patriarchal one that gets back to the idea of men needing to protect women. Why not stopping harassment b/c it’s the RIGHT THING TO DO versus it shows “what a man you are?” I mean, it’s a step in the right direction. And perhaps these two meant something else and the author misquoted them. But the paternalism in those quotes kind of icks me out.