Harassment has been the talk of the town since the “On the Run” incident, where, surprisingly, Egyptians managed to find a reason to shame the victim and glamorize the harasser. With Eid happening right after the incident, it was no surprise that harassment will be continuing to be the talk of the town since eid is already known for being the “harassment season.”
Instead of issues being raised about our society and how we can overcome the harassment epidemic (yes, epidemic), people are still making jokes about the “On the run” harasser, and even offering him movie roles.
In the meantime, three women were sexually molested in the streets of Damanhour and it was recorded. At the video, you can hear the screams of the women, and the men running to get their share in the harassment, and even some telling the person taking the video to upload the video online, while they themselves run to harass the women.
In another more disturbing incident, a video has been circulated of a 40-year-old man being stabbed to death for protecting his wife from harassment in Abu Youssef beach in Alexandria.
In the video, you can hear a woman screaming for help while holding her dying husband on the seashore, with blood all around him. What’s even more disturbing is the fact that you can see kids and families watching the incident.
(Viewers discretion is advised)
Out of all the videos that have been circulating from Egypt, this video has to be one of the most disturbing ones, which causes it to be deleted multiple times from Facebook.
While these two incidents are the only ones we know of so far since most incidents do not get recorded, that said, the two videos should already be raising questions and forcing the government, and Egyptians to take a much tougher stand against harassment.
Yes, laws have been applied to deal with harassment, with the latest being a 3000EGP fine for verbal harassment after the “On the run” incident, yet those law and fines seem to be doing little to no help.
As important as laws are, laws do not change society’s mentality. There have been almost no studies as to why Egyptians harass, which leads to no psychological and sociological efforts to fix the phenomena. It truly has become an Egyptian trait, which does not seem to be going away anytime soon.
While there seems to be little that we, ourselves, can do to solve the problem, there are simple things we can change within ourselves that will eventually help at least one victim of harassment.
- Be an ally to victims of sexual harassment
- Support your friends and family if they come forward with their stories
- Support strangers as well
- And the most important thing is to believe the victim. It is absolutely rare that a person would come forward with their story without it being actual harassment.
Edit: In a previous version of the article, it was stated that in the video of the man being stabbed, the one recording the video was encouraging the murder of the victim, but it has come to our attention that it was to murder the dog and not the victim. Does not make the situation any better, but we had correct the article.
