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Explosive Sexual attacks on women in the streets of Cairo during the feast
There was an article from a blog submitted by Auto in the religion section on "We must force females to wear hijab" thread that nobody paid much attention to because it was in Arabic
It was also reported in the Egyptian opposition newspapers............ No way in hell would Al-Ahram or Al-Wafd report something like that. They only made an Anti-report denying that it ever happened Posts: 3128 | From: Not Your Heaven | Registered: Sep 2006
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So, what is the general consensus? Did it happen as reported here, or was it a much smaller incident that got exaggerated and blown out of proportion to look like something even more shocking? I've heard both takes on the subject.
Posts: 84 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:Originally posted by ChinderallaAngelTormentor CAT: Honestly I am not sure........ when i told my friends about it they didnt believe it.
They thought it was exaggerated but i dont think so
Well, that's what a good friend of mine from Cairo is saying ... but he isn't living there right now. Maybe I'll email his sister and ask her what she thinks. Posts: 84 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Anyone who walked the streets of Alex or Cairo during this time would have to be blind to miss it.
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How can a culture that sanctifies female honor do so little to uphold it?
By Mirette F. Mabrouk First Published: November 1, 2006
This is a kind country. It’s one that promotes family values. Its culture nurtures the old, the sick, the poor and children. Its strong religious beliefs, both Muslim and Christian, teach respect for women.
Right.
It’s very possible that those statements might have been true of Egypt at one time, but I cannot, in all honesty, say that they are true of the Egypt that I live in.
This is a difficult thing to say. I grew up in a family that was fiercely patriotic; the kind of patriotism that gets its strength from sheer distance. It was la Rochefoucald who said that distance diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as a wind would snuff out a candle, but fan a bonfire. Absence might not make the heart grow fonder on an individual basis, but it’s a marvelous aphrodisiac for national pride.
Egypt was always the place where people felt more, were kinder, were more generous.
Even if they had little to give, they would share it. Women, in particular, were to be cherished and treated with respect. The culture, after all, positively glowed with religious references to how the Prophet Mohamed said that the person most worthy of your respect was your mother (three times over) and the Virgin Mary was the most blessed among women.
Turned out, however, that absence does have its advantages. The clearest skin isn’t a pretty sight under a microscope. And like many loves, Egypt is much better adored at a distance.
Being a woman is tougher than being a man in most countries. It’s especially the case in Egypt. Generally speaking, the fabled respect for women exists only in the fairy tales they tell to children before bedtime.
The horror stories that emerged after the first day of Eid Al-Fitr have yet to be confirmed by any official source, but there has been enough activity on blogs and via the grapevine to indicate that something did happen.
It’s difficult to separate fact from lurid fiction, but the following appears to be confirmed. On the first day of the Eid, throngs of young men who were attempting to buy tickets for a film in the downtown area of Cairo rioted when the tickets sold out. They smashed windows, destroyed property and sexually harassed women who were in the area.
By the second day, apparently, things were a little more organized. The rabid throngs had developed into brutal bands that tracked down women and in many cases tore their clothes off and groped them. One eyewitness account on a blog described how one woman desperately held her girls to her “as if she were trying to return them to her womb.”
Women who were with their husbands, brothers or fathers were not spared.
And nowhere, in the middle of this flagrant abuse of law and order and of common decency, was there any sign of an official or police response.
The police, apparently, can be hauled out en masse to beat down demonstrators, but not to protect citizens.
Sexual harassment is not subject to passports and does not require any visas. If you’re a woman in any country, you stand a good chance of being sexually harassed on myriad levels. In many countries, just walking down the street may be enough to draw unwelcome attention. This is very much the case in Egypt. A woman, any woman, between the ages of 12 and 60 is likely to be harassed; the scale ranges from coy, occasionally sweet and harmless comments tossed after you to the vilest form of actual physical assault.
Those who make fun of the women’s car on the metro as a form of regressive backwardness are not women who have had to suffer the indignity of public transport. For those women (and they constitute the majority of female commuters) the idea of not having to worry about being groped on a crowded bus comes as a blessed relief.
Of course, physical abuse on public transport is possible in any country in the world, but in most countries, the woman is in a position to do something about it. She at least has the option of making an official complaint.
That’s possible, in Egypt, of course. Public harassment is actually against the law – there’s a three-month prison sentence mandated for it (and that refers to verbal, not physical harassment). However, there are consequences, as a friend of mine found out when she attempted to file a complaint when she was mobbed by a group of teenage boys leaving their school in Mohandiseen at around 2:30 p.m.
A police officer kindly explained the rules to her – a woman who files a harassment complaint has to do so at the vice department. Ergo, you end up with a file in your name, in vice. Not an honor that many women aspire to.
Simply put, women are encouraged to shut up and put up with it. Harassers make their catcalls or worse with impunity because our culture mandates that decent women do not attract attention to themselves.
Harassers who are surprised by a woman who vocally challenges their behavior usually react in two ways – surprise and a swift exit, or they can turn very ugly and occasionally violent.
They do so because they can get away with it. And the fact that they can get away with it is an unmitigated shame to this country, our people and our culture. The hypocrisy of a culture that places such a high premium on the sanctity of women and their honor and yet allows its women to be objectified as cheap sexual objects and treated with such degrading disrespect is a constant source of astonishment, disgust and disappointment to me.
There can be any number of reasons – poverty, sexual frustration, a rising religious conservatism that demands that women stay at home and cover up. None of these factors justify the wretched treatment that women in this country receive.
This is not the country that I was raised to love and respect. Nor is it the country that I first knew almost 20 years ago. In that country, if someone groped a woman on a bus, the closest three men would have stood up and smacked him across the head, irrespective of who the woman was.
These men had mothers and sisters and wives and they would not have permitted something like that to happen to any of them. And any one of the women on that bus could have been their wife or sister.
Ten years ago, my sister saw an argument on a bus where a man who had just groped a woman assaulted her when she dared to object. He grabbed the front of her clothes and tossed her around like a rag doll. The woman was wearing a khimar – the kind of veil that covers the entire upper body like a tent – and she was carrying a baby.
No one on the bus said anything. The bus driver asked the man to get off the bus, but no one else lifted a finger to help the woman.
So perhaps the mass assaults over the Eid should not have come as too much of a surprise. Perhaps one shouldn’t be surprised that marauding bands of young men feel that they can act this way with impunity.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that a government that can’t seem to be bothered to protect the basic civil rights of its citizens should feel any compunction to give a damn about a couple of dozen women who might have been assaulted.
The only ray of light was that the women who came under assault fled into shops and homes and were protected by shopkeepers, building security men and passing taxi drivers.
These tiny glimpses of humanity and common decency were the only reason to continue to believe in the country that we were raised to love and respect. Perhaps as long as there are a few who will put themselves in harm’s way to protect a stranger then there is hope for the rest of us.
Mirette F. Mabrouk is the Publisher of The Daily Star Egypt.
Posts: 8 | From: Cairo | Registered: Sep 2006
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Rosa al-Youssef hits new rock bottom Published by Hossam el-Hamalawy October 31st, 2006 in Egypt, Activism, Media, Bloggers, Ewwwwُُ
It’s unbelievable what Rosa al-Youssef is doing these days. The daily paper, which is regarded as close to Gamal Mubarak’s NDP Policies’ Secretariat, is launching a crusade against journalist/blogger and friend Wael Abbas for helping to expose the downtown Cairo molestation fiesta during Eid.
The horrific incidents went unreported by the local media, except for Al-Masry Al-Youm which published an article about it yesterday based on the bloggers’ testimonies. MP Mustafa Bakri has submitted questions to the government today about the incidents, while the Interior Ministry is claiming nothing happened, as always.
Karam Gabr, the paper’s editor is claiming Wael is fabricating the incidents using his “sick fantasies”, and started the usual overdose of flag-waving with accusations of “defaming Egypt’s image” BS.
Gabr is the same guy who back in the summer was claiming that Mohamed Sharqawi was also fabricating stories about his torture and sexual abuse.
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Newcomer, what a shame! everytime something serious happens........... the Government & the gov owned newspapers would say the usual crap “defaming Egypt’s image”
They want to continue to be irresponsible. Dont they?
I made a comment on the website Posts: 3128 | From: Not Your Heaven | Registered: Sep 2006
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quote:Originally posted by ChinderallaAngelTormentor CAT: They thought it was exaggerated but i dont think so
I don't think so either. I've experienced the most horrible cases of harassment, groping, aggression, even being slapped, during the Eid, both in Cairo and Alexandria.
I remember telling my colleague about it and she said none of the women in her family leaves the house during the Eid because of this ... so it seems the problem is not so unheard of.
Posts: 3587 | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by ChinderallaAngelTormentor CAT: They thought it was exaggerated but i dont think so
I don't think so either. I've experienced the most horrible cases of harassment, groping, aggression, even being slapped, during the Eid, both in Cairo and Alexandria.
I remember telling my colleague about it and she said none of the women in her family leaves the house during the Eid because of this ... so it seems the problem is not so unheard of.
You're right....... we never really get outside the house in Eid unless we visit a relative at their place ......... When I told my dad that i wanted to go to the cinema.... he was like "In Eid? Are you nuts? "
Posts: 3128 | From: Not Your Heaven | Registered: Sep 2006
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man this is craaaazy! my guy told me kids in his neighborhood get HIGH as hell on eid. what the heck! whatever happened to going to eid prayer and having a lunch with friends and family? jeez. this is another example of why i think its better to raise muslim kids here than in the "old country". Do girls carry around mace? From what my guy told me, i understand that if a girl tries to argue with a guy who harassed her, she just makes the situation worse for herself, b/c he just gets more agressive. what a bunch of turds.
Posts: 1967 | From: USA | Registered: Oct 2006
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Something similiar happened in New york years ago and someone was recording it with a video recorder, it was a TERRIFYING sight to see, really mob mentality, the poor women involved were just engulfed by these disgusting men! At least, there the police took the recorded material and convicted many of the men involved. I can't believe what i read above. The women would probably have to pay off the police men first before they lift a finger to help them. Posts: 13440 | Registered: Feb 2006
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Alleged Attacks Set Off Dispute in Egypt By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD, Associated Press Writer 12:22 PM PST, November 2, 2006
CAIRO, Egypt -- Alleged mob attacks on women during last week's Islamic holiday have set off a political dispute involving President Hosni Mubarak's regime.
Witnesses accuse police of doing nothing to protect the women as they walked on downtown Cairo streets, and democracy activists have cited the controversy as a sign that Egypt is mismanaged and corrupt.
The government has accused the bloggers who publicized the incidents of defaming the country, and some police officials have said there is no evidence any attacks occurred.
But a handful of Internet bloggers, who said they either witnessed the attacks or spoke with witnesses, reported that on the nights of Oct. 23 and 24 women were attacked by groups of men and boys who groped them and tore at their clothes. Some women wore head scarves or full Islamic veils and others were with their families, the bloggers said.
"Anything that moves and smells like a female was attacked," said Wael Abbas, a democracy activist and blogger who said he witnessed the alleged attacks and published photographs of them on his blog.
Crowds of people filled Cairo's streets on those nights to celebrate the beginning of Eid el-Fitr, the three-day holiday that marks the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
Interior Ministry officials, quoted on condition of anonymity in the Egyptian press, said they received no complaints of such attacks. "We should close the file on disparaging rumors," said one police official quoted in Al Ahram, Egypt's biggest government daily.
The government made no other official comment.
But an editorial in Rose el-Youssef, a pro-government daily, carried the headline: "To what extent are they just defaming Egyptians?" The author singled out Abbas for condemnation, accusing him of fabricating a "sexual revolution downtown."
Opposition newspapers and activists have seized on the controversy to broadly criticize Mubarak's government. A similar outcry occurred after a ferry sank in the Red Sea in February, killing more than 1,000 laborers.
"Nothing amazes me in Egypt lately ... But what happened during Eid took me back to sad surprises," Sahar el-Mougy, a female novelist and activist, wrote in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm.
While low-level harassment of women is common in Egyptian cities, reports of assaults are rare. Police are usually on the streets in large numbers.
Some activists said the police seemed more concerned about protecting Mubarak and his allies than ordinary citizens, while others criticized Mubarak directly.
"They (the police) are a political force in the service of the regime and not of the citizens," said Aida Seif el-Dawla, an activist and the director of the Al-Nadim Center for the Management and Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence.
Some linked the recent reported attacks and assaults on women activists and journalists during a referendum vote last year.
"It was the security forces who introduced the culture of violating women when they tore the clothes of Kifaya (an opposition group) female activists, said Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
Security officials have said clashes linked to the 2005 referendum, held to determine whether more than one candidate would be allowed to run in presidential elections, were between Mubarak supporters and Kifaya members and that security officials were not involved. But Associated Press reporters saw plainclothes agents taking instructions from both uniformed and non-uniformed government security officers.
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AP writer Sierra Millman contributed to this report from Cairo.
Posts: 13440 | Registered: Feb 2006
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I remember the first time I heard of it while I was in Amman. Eblis sent me an e-mail titled "Behold the revolution in Egypt" with a link to malek's post on it and I stupidly clicked on it and was presented with a reality that I didn't want or desire to confront.
The story is as follows for the those of you who didn't hear about it: It was the first day of Eid, and a new film was opening downtown. Mobs of males gatherd trying to get in, but when the show was sold out, they decided they will destroy the box office. After accomplishing that, they went on what can only be described as a sexual frenxy: They ran around grabbing any and every girl in sight, whether a niqabi, a Hijabi or uncoverd. Whether egyptian or foreigner. Even pregnant ones. They grabbed them, molested them, tried to rip their cloths off and rape them, all in front of the police, who didn't do ****. The good people of downtown tried their best to protect the girls. Shop owners would let the girls in and lock the doors, while the mobs tried to break in. Taxi drivers put the girls in the cars while the mobs were trying to break the glass and grab the girls out. It was a disgusting pandamonium of sexual assaults that lasted for 5 houres from 7:30 PM to 12:30 am, and it truns my stomach just to think about it.
I called my father when I heard of that happening, and he informed me that he didn't hear of it at all. They watched Al Jazeerah, CNN, flipped through opposition newspapers, and nothing. Nada. Nobody mentioned it. As if it didn't happen.
But it did.
The bloggers available downtown documented the whole thing, and provided pictures of it as well. Reading their accounts I can't help by feel my heart being torn on what the people of the country has turned to. The one that broke my heart the most was Sharqawi's account (remember, he is the guy who got sexually assaulted by the police during interrogation ) and how it suddenly danwed at him that what happend to him wasn;t an isolated incident. That The Police forces didn;t came from another planet, that they were born and raised egyptians, amongst the egyptian people, the same egyptian people who have produced those mobs who found it in their right to attack girls in middle of crowded downtown for 5 houres under the police's watchdul eyes. The ones who approached the police asking them to do something were told : "what do you want us to do? It's Eid. Happy Eid to you too!" The same response was given to women who went to the police stations to report the incidents. The police refused to do their jobs and take a report, because it would probably reflect badly on their downtown peers. Some people were surprised at the Police's reaction, but the majoirty of us weren't. Those are the same police officers who facilitated the assaults on women last year during the referendum. This is business as usual for them.
What was unusual was the silence of the press. Nobody was mentioning it. Nobody was bringing it up. It seemed like there was some consensus of just not reporting it and maybe it will just go away. What at first seemed like a conspiracy got later on confirmed by my sources in the news media. Al Jazeera had taped the incidents but were forbidden to air it at the request of the egyptian authorities. The editor at a leading newspaper refused to touch it with a 6 foot pole. This was going to be one of those incidents that only the blogsphere would talk about, while the mainstream media ignored.
Until Nawarah Negm blew the whole thing wide open on live television on the Dream Channel.
She was brought in as a writer to be part of a fluffy segment on Mona Al Shazly show talking about the Ramadan TV shows, and the girl's first response to the question was: "What Television shows do you want to discuss, when egyptian girls are assaulted on the streets of Cairo while the police watched and did nothing?" When Mona counterd that she never heard of it before, Nawarah told her all about it, in details and how it's all over the internet.
All of Egypt saw that. The cat was out of the bag. A cover-up was no longer feasiable.
When I spoke to the brilliant Nawarah yesterday, she told me that she was debating talking about it or not on television, that was until she was faced with the camera and found herself on the air, and just couldn't hold herself back. She went for it, and god bless her for having the guts to do that.
The next day, Mona Al Shazly went and did a segment on the incident and interviewed the people on the street. The video of the segment is here (arabic, sorry). She even contacted the Ministery of Interior for a statement. You know what their response was?
"We didn't hear of anything. This didn't happen. Things were just crowded in downtown that day, but no girls were assaulted, because no police reports were filed in that regard!"
FUCKERS!
I am not one of those people who claims to be above hate. I do hate, and I hate quite passionately, the same way when I love I love passionately. But I have to say that I have never hated anyone or group as much as I hate the egyptian police at this moment. It's a hate of unequaled proportions. I really wouldn't mind them all dying horrible deaths right now. A police force that doesn't protect its citizens, especially its women, has no business being on the streets. They become nothing more than an organized armed gang now in my opinion, even lower, because they are shaming everyone who wore theat uniform before and did his job. THEY DESERVE TO DIE!
Anyway, the TV show brought it up, and now Egypt's leading newspaper, Al Masry Al youm, featured two columns on the incident. More is bound to come and this national shame will be exposed and confronted.
Now, the egyptian blogsphere has been abuzz in debate over the incident. Some are writing posts on why it happend, possible causes, what it means, the social and political factors that could possibly lead to this behavior, and quite honestly, I can't be botherd. I don't care why it happend. Rape is not up for debate. I just care that it happend. What we should discuss right now isn't what caused it, but what kind of horrible punishment that should be enacted on any egyptian male who thinks that it is well into his right to sexually harass a female on the street. That's it. Pure and simple.
I am often told that I am too westernized or too liberal by people I know, and they are not wrong or inaccurate. My values are for the most part western values. However, there are two middle-eastern traits in me that I can never give up: The first is my stupid insistince on always paying for the bill when I am with a girl I am dating, and the second is my protectiveness of women. I have no tolerance for those who assault women sexually in any way, and that almost got me kicked out of my school in Boston when I broke the leg of one of my roommates who raped a friend of mine. The incident only resulted in him getting a broken leg because people stoped me before I killed him. And I had the full intention of killing him. Rapists do not deserve to live. And that's how I feel towards every single one of those pieces of **** that attacked women on the streets of cairo the other day.
People can debate solutions based on dialogue, education, or whatever and that's their right. My solution is far simpler: Any egyptian man whose mother raised him right should beat the living crap of any man he sees on the street that assaults or harasses a female. Think of them as your sisters, and act accordingly. The Police isn't interested in protecting the women, and that's fine, but that means that we should take this job as our own. Those who insist on acting like animals will be treated as such, and deserve no sympathy or mercy from us. I assure you, if we did this, if we undertook this as part of our national duty, there will no longer be a problem on our streets.
For some reason there is very little English language coverage of this. It's not exactly the best image of Egypt, but pretending it did not happen will not lead to progress. And by not letting this out to the world we are pretending it did not happen.
I have to be honest, this is one of those times when I find myself left with no choice but to feel ashamed of being Egyptian. It is one of those times when I feel like I don't want to be in Egypt. When I feel like I want protect all the women that I care about (relatives, friends... etc) from this dark side of Egypt.
All my factual information is from Arabic language Egyptian blogs reporting eyewitness accounts. Non-factual information is from other Arabic language blogs that I've read about this. I am going to summarize this issue without stating my opinion for now. References are at the bottom.
The incident: On October 23rd and 24th, large crowds of men sexually harassed women in the streets of downtown Cairo. Some pictures can be found at the bottom of this Post.
The facts:
The crowds seem to have initially gather at a movie theatre where some actors were present for a movie premier. Tickets to the movie ran out and people started breaking glass and stealing posters. The first day involved more unconcentrated/disorganized harrassments. the second day involved larger crowds approaching girls at a time before surrounding them/her and groping them/her. There was no police involvement though Egyptian State Security were no more than 5 minutes away, stationed at Gam3et El Dowal and the American Embassy. The crowds did not spare women that were with their husbands, fathers, brothers, sons, relatives. The second day harrassments lasted for more than 4 hours. The men's ages ranged from 10 to 40. Fights between the men sometimes ensued over who gets to assault the victim. Some bloggers report police officers receiving bribes to leave the area.
The stories:
One eyewitness recounts a large crowd of youth (shabab) that run after a woman in her early twenties when she trips and falls. The men then start groping her and take off her clothes. The woman gets up, runs, and hides inside a restaurant. The men surround the restaurant until someone shouts, "there is another one at ....". The crowds then run to that location to find another woman completely surrounded by hundreds of men trying to feel her and take off her clothes. A taxi driver takes that woman in his car but the men surround the car and shout for the girl to come out. A Security Officer (appears to be non-government) tries to fend the people off by hitting them with his baton. The crowds do not easily disperse until they see two women wearing the overall Saudi/Gulf veil & abaya walking alone. The crowds then completely surround them, before touching them and taking off their veils. They attempt to take their clothes off while 10/11 year old boys get in their abayas. A well known actress, Ola Ghanem, was seen surrounded by her bodyguards fending off the crowds but were unable to completely protect the actress. A woman in a veil and abaya is harassed by men who take off her abaya before two building Security guys took her into the building and locked the door to protect her. A woman in tighter pants and a normal shirt is harassed and men take off her shirt and bra. A security person takes her into a shop fending off people with a stick. Much worse assaults are reported by the word of mouth but are not witnessed. One in which a woman was sexually assaulted against a wall after taking off all her clothes. Men cheered this before attacking a victim, "yaay, we will f***, we will f***". (yaay is my rough translation for 'heyeh'). And when they find another victim, "another woman, another woman". And when they see women in veil & abaya, "go Saudi, go Saudi". (go is my rough translation for 'beep beep'). And when surrounding a taxi and calling for a victim to get out of the car, "get out you sl*t, we will show you". The woman was later forced out like they wanted! Some bloggers warned women against entering the troubled areas, and most listened. Some women sought protection with the bloggers as they had cameras. The men did not assault these women fearing that they might be journalists. Some men were observed to use their belts to ward off the crowds and then take the victim in a taxi and flee. Some shop owners sprayed water to disperse the crowds and hailed for the women to come inside.
The possible causes: The overwhelming response from Egyptian blogosphere is obviously outrage. Though the response is emotional and angry, I was able to identify some possible causes of this incident that were suggested. They might overlap and contradict, but here they are anyway:
People were under the added pressure of the fast during Ramadan abstaining from 'sin'. On Eid El Fetr, ending Ramadan, the men could finally go back to the routine and all the energy was released at once. Marriage in Egypt is not cheap. Poverty has caused men to marry later in life rather than in their 20's. The lack of sexual freedom in Egypt. Premarital sex is a taboo; two consenting adults cannot very easily have sex. The lack of brothels or sexual outlets, even for money. Education in Egypt is inadequate and insufficient. In other words, people that are educated were not educated properly in addition to the large number of uneducated people. Religious education/awareness is insufficient. Lack of law enforcement. Inequality between men and women as women are viewed as second rate citizens and have a lower status among men. The presence of some freedoms and lack of others. In other words, men can fairly easily find porn, and semi-nude singers are featured in the media yet a man cannot easily find a sexual partner. Yet, after all this, a cleric claims that Rape Is Women's Fault in a recent post by Freedom For Egyptians.
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