Some friends and I are starting an awareness campaign about this problem, which we very strongly feel must be controlled. Mys3elf and another girl are based here in Cairo and the third friend is living in New York and seeking supprot and funding from people. We have been trying to interview people about their experiences so we can use it as evidence for funding bodies as to the extent of the problem but we have not been very successful in getting responses.

I would like to ask people to email their experiences to me at nicole_leathem@yahoo.com.au

If you can include information about how long you have spent in egypt, the kinds of harrassment you have experienced, what areas you experienced it, how it makes you feel, what you tell other people about your experiences in egypt..especially foreigners thinkning about travelling here, how it effects your life here, ummm, and anything else you think is relevant...i will post more if i remember anything.

If anybody is interested in helping us with this we want to expand the number of people involved, espescially egytians who will understand a lot of do's and donts that maybe we cant understand.

If anybody had some ideas, please post whatever is going through your mind about this.

Cheers

We are only in the beginning phase at the moment. We are trying to get support from NGO's in Egypt at the moment and our friend Lyra is in the US trying to get funding. Our aim is to use different Media tool...initially posters and a documentary and from there, Newspapers, magazine and television. Lyra is a film maker and has a Masters in Human rights, Kristen is a Journalist and a friend of hers does photography. We have a lot of women who are interested in helping us with this and offering their skills. At the moment we are planning of taking the angle what these men are doing to girls on the street could be happening to their sisters, wives, mothers, girlfriends etc. People are very protective over their families here so we think this will be an effective approach. But first we need a report from people about what is happening to them to use as evidence for supporting NGOs. Then we hope to form a discussion group consisting of both egyptians and foreigners about the best ways to tackle this. But as i said we are in the initial stages.

[This message has been edited by egyptourguide (edited 06 September 2005).]

[This message has been edited by egyptourguide (edited 06 September 2005).]

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Originally posted by egyptourguide:
just advice for all girls who are suffering hassle ,advice from Egyptian female that((modest ,modest, modest in clothes will protect you well))insha ALLAH
an Long,wide clothes be better also some tourists were like putting veil when they were traveling alone and mostly every one thought them are Egyptian women((dose any one try that))
also please be justify some thing and look how many man walking at streets and how many man bothering you in ,yes one can spoiled every thing but at same time mostly Egypt is safe for women
and i welcome offering any help i can do

[This message has been edited by egyptourguide (edited 06 September 2005).]

[This message has been edited by egyptourguide (edited 06 September 2005).]

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Also, as you said it is certainly different if you are with a guy.

we are planning to hold a discussion group on Wednesday the 21st September...those interested please e mail me.

It is great and wonderful, that someone has the balls to bring this subject up. However its just not an Egyptian problem, its also an American problem, and a world wide problem. The street harassment, and the undeclared War against Women, has been brewing for decades.

As a woman, I get so sick and tired, in the US, of the damn catcalls, hoots, whistles, etc... I used to ride the bus, and would get proposited, non stop. Waiting out at the bus stop, at 6am just praying that the bus would be on time, as a car drives towards me and stops. I am so f(((( sick of it, and I personally think women should carry a damn AK 47, and just start shooting at these asshole men. They should take all the guns, arms, etc,,, away from men, and let the women have them..with a big roll of duct tape.

Oprah Winfrey, as an experiment brought various men, guilty of harassment. They were tied to a chair, and women would walk by them and harass them. They (the men) couldn't say anything back, and all of them ended up crying, and very upset. And none of them realized what they were doing.

One thing to bring this problem is having actors, and actresses, act out various scenerios in schools, mosques, markets, etc. Develop a situation, and then have the verbal abuse, and the confrontatin, and then a solution. I don't think some of these men, realize what they are doing, and until they are in the shoes of women, they will never know. Just like I think men should be forced to dress like women, and under go the abuse, harassment, and discrimination we get.

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Originally posted by Tigerlily:

Nicole, the problem is not easy to resolve, actually I believe its impossible. Most guys who are infact harrassing women are coming from a lower social class, some don't even know how to read and write. Its a totally different culture in Egypt. Women in general have tough lives there, harrassment is just one issue of discrimination. I posted on your other thread some contacts of women right organization inside Cairo, you might want to get in contact with one or the other person to gain more information and to exchange views.

Good luck with your campaign!

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