In Egypt, women’s silence increases sexual harassment

Donna Albert, a member of Egypt’s anti- harassment movement, has said that the Egyptian law is not the reason behind the increase of sexual harassment in the street but rather it is the silence of girls and women who suffer from the harassment.

During a seminar organised at Ain Shams University on Monday, Donna said that under the new harassment law released on June 5, 2014 offenders can face six months imprisonment and a fine that could reach five thousand Egyptian pounds.

However, she added, women rarely file a complaint against their attackers or they waive their right after filing the complaint.

Albert explained that a survey of 2,334 girls in 2013 found that 99.3 per cent of women in Egypt have been subjected to verbal or physical harassment and 61.3 per cent of the harassers were school or university students.

Albert said that 91 per cent of women in the study said they did not feel safe in the street.

Out of the 99.3 percent of Egyptian women that have been subjected to harassment, around 93 percent of them did not report the assault, according to the study. They cited several reasons for not reporting the crime, mainly their fear of the harasser’s reaction or fear for their reputation.

Albert added that civil society pressure and awareness campaigns highlighting the seriousness of the sexual harassment phenomenon and encouraging girls to report violations is the best way to tackle the issue.

Note: This item was updated at 16.33 BST on May 3rd 2015 to correct the name of Donna Albert, which was spelt as ‘Dunia Albert’.