A Russian girl, who thought it was fun to do some snorkeling and see how cool the underwater is in Egypt, sadly found herself subject to underwater sexual harassment by the person who is supposed to be there to guide her and assure her safety! ( As allegedly reported by Mohamed Hany on Facebook)
It might seem like a very depressing couple of weeks; counting the number of sexual harassment incidents that had been reported and circulated all the social media platforms, but oddly enough it isn’t. These disgusting incidents have been happening every day for a very long time, so it must be considered a positive step that people aren’t shy or ashamed anymore to speak of them, and of enduring such unacceptable behavior in Egypt.
The incident was posted a few days back on Facebook. It’s not clear yet where exactly the events took place, what we do know so far that it was at one of Egypt’s coastal destinations. If true, the guy, named Mohamed Hany, managed to take photos of a diver/lifeguard while molesting a Russian girl underwater.
As stated in the post, the girl tried numerous times to push the harasser off of her and kept shouting at him in Russian but that didn’t stop him. All the while, Mohamed Hany was taking pictures of the incident with his phone underwater, to have actual proof of it, and report the guide. Hopefully, he will do that.
What’s even more interesting are some of the comments on the post. For sure there was a big share of them who condemn the incident and the harasser, but others were shaming the victim. Some even went as far as saying that the whole deal is an act of revenge, an attempt to create a post that can go viral, or to distort Egypt’s image worldwide.
True or not, is it really that hard to swallow the fact that we are living in a society that suffers from a disease called sexual harassment? How many victims should come forward in order for us to get out of that denial state and actually start doing something about it?
Only days ago, Al-Azhar issued a statement regarding sexual harassment, stating that the criminalization of harassment must be absolute and impartial of any context, that the girl’s clothes or behavior don’t justify the assault. While many made fun of the statement, indicating that we all know that sexual harassment is haram, they missed Al-Azhar’s point. The statement wasn’t addressing the harassers; it was addressing those who justify the act, who shame girls because of their attire or behavior, who even give a shout out to guys who harass girls.
The cure for this so called sexual harassment disease isn’t in the hands of the harassers for sure, it’s in the hand of the society; when we stop pointing fingers at the victims and start pointing them at the assaulters.
