As for Noha, good on her.

I am confused why they are calling this sexual harassment and not sexual assault.

Or is that your phraseology? In which case it is wrong.

Assault maybe deserves 3 years and hard labor. Harassment shouldn’t

That took some serious courage to keep insisting on her rights.

She’s on the hero list now!

Just when you think society might be progressing, you realize it’s still in the dark ages. Well, not everyone at least.

It’s the same stuff, whenever a woman comes out and admit she was sexually harassed, people say things like “oh she’s just trying to get attention.” It’s really infuriating.

@ Laila: Actually, some Muslim scholars (not all) say that a woman needs a male guardian if she travels anywhere. A lot (including the Grand Mufti of Egypt Ali Gomaa) say that if she is sure it is safe she can travel alone.

@ Abdulrahman: Thanks for the link and for dropping by.

@ laila: I agree with you that the perception of sexual harassment as normal is far worse than the actual act itself. In Noha’s case, she had to wait an hour before dragging Gomaa to the station because no one in the street would help her. Everyone told her to forget it and that she was bringing ‘scandal’ upon herself. Even Gomaa was shocked that she was speaking out, he didn’t understand why she wasn’t ashamed!

But the government is doing something, and it’s partly because of the media attention, which casts Egypt in a bad light and scares off the tourists. When there was a mass sexual harassment in Eid 2006, the government denied it and it was bloggers who broke the story with videos. But when there was a mass sexual harassment in Eid this year, the government actually arrested 8 men. Baby steps!

@ jamile: Thankfully no one has tried to ‘punish’ me for speaking up yet! The most I’ve gotten so far are some nasty comments. And yes, harassment of covered/ modestly dressed women happens all the time—that’s the whole argument. The people who say it doesn’t happen are either a) ignorant b) in denial c) living in a cave or d) lying in order to try and put the blame at women’s feet.

I hope the judgment will restore confidence in the ability of the legal system to deal with sexual harassment cases, but I fear that this will be a one-off, something they did so they could say “ok, get off our backs, we’ve announced that it’s wrong.” ECWR seem too optimistic, but who knows?

@ SaudiAmber: For you and all of you who seem surprised that this is the first time a man has been sentenced for sexual harassment in Egypt, don’t be! Until very recently, a man could get out of punishment for rape by marrying the woman he raped! Sexual harassment is so engrained in Egyptian society that many people, men and women, don’t even think about it anymore.

Your example of Hind al-Hinawi is spot on. Even though she managed to prove the child was his and that he lied in court until the evidence proved otherwise, she is still spoken about by many in very negative terms, while the actor has gone on his merry way. He’s still very popular on TV and with youth—he’s a ‘man,’ you see.

@ Sobia: Egyptian law does not define or punish sexual harassment—that’s what organizations like ECWR and the National Council for Women’s rights are trying to do. That’s particularly why Noha’s case is so important, it truly is a precedent.

Anyways, I in part blame the parents. If you teach your children (either thru actions or words) that women deserve what they get and if they constantly hear you sexually denigrating women than this is what you get. A nation where 60% of men openly admit to treating women like they are whores walking the street for their personal gratification and where a large percentage of women feel that it is there fate in life to just except such behavior from “men” and get on with it. Sad.

On a side note, I do find it somewhat ironic that the court hearing was not made public in order to preserve “public modesty and morals”. How can you preserve something that seems practically nonexistent?

Whatever happened to self control? Men, can you not control what you say or do? Look the other way! Keep your mouth closed! Keep your hands to yourself! My goodness, are you mindless robots or something?

Everyone answers for how he or she treated others. How he or she responded to temptations and problems and good things in life. You have got to stop blaming others for causing you to sin. Please! I’d like for you to explain that one to God. He gave YOU a mind…use it.

Thanks for sharing this story. I am really glad to know the perp was punished. I hope to read about more such cases in the future.