Egypt's activists rise up against Tahrir sexual assaults

[DJKeefy]

A group of activists and volunteers from Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment are fighting back against a shocking wave of violent sexual assaults against women in Tahrir

Egyptian activists are rising up against sexual harassment and sexual assaults that have recently plagued Cairo's Tahrir Square.

Formed in November 2012, Operation Anti Sexual Harassment is one of those groups. They consist of scores of volunteers who give up their free time to fight against one of the ugliest issues to emerge in Tahrir Square recently - sexual assaults targeting women.

The group distributes fliers in the square with their hotline number, which women call if they get attacked. The call reaches a control room, then organisers phone 'intervention teams' on the ground who immediately rush to the victim. The group attempts to remove her from the crowd, take her to a safe place and provide her with medical and psychological assistance.

Tahrir - for over 2 years a symbol of Egypt's revolution - has suffered from fights, scuffles and clashes often attributed to the infiltration of counter revolutionary forces, and now violence against women seems to be the latest tool to undermine the demonstrations there.

On 25th January 2013, the two year anniversary of the revolution, Operation Anti Sexual Harassment dealt with 19 serious cases of sexual assault. Six women were taken to hospital due to their injuries.

Despite the horrific attacks, women are not staying away from the square. A week after the anniversary, women still made up a significant proportion of the Friday protests.

Engy Ghozlan, a long time women's rights activist and member of Operation Anti-Sexul Harassment says women will not be deterred. "This won't stop women from going or force them to stay at home, nothing will prevent us from going. The street belongs to us as it belongs to anyone. This is our country and we will not be silent against sexual harassment. Not the type that happens everyday nor that of Tahrir... In Egypt there is no revolution without the participation of women and their security"

phpBB [video]

[Horus]

You only have to take a look at the man on the news today being stripped naked and dragged around while being savagely beaten by the police to realise that there is something seriously wrong with the Egyptian mind set when it comes to this sort of intimidation against protesters. Yet elsewhere we will read that it is all hunky dory in the rest of the country, but this sort of behaviour only demonstrates that it would take very little to trigger the mob mentality once it actually erupts and the location has nothing to do with it, this sort of thing can happen anywhere in Egypt all it requires is a trigger.

[LovelyLadyLux]

I think you're very correct that Egypt is a powder keg just waiting for the correct spark to ignite it.

Saw the clip of the Egyptian man being dragged about on the street whilst stripped naked. Not that this isn't a horrific act anywhere and totally beyond my comprehension but seems to me that it is worse (perhaps psychologically) in Egypt given the extremely strict Islamic tenets associated with the body and exposure.