If ever you mentioned the term “Harassment” or “Sexual Assault,” you’d automatically believe that the victim is female since 99.3% of the Egyptian female population got harassed one way or another. Reality is, it’s not only women who are subjected to physical or verbal harassememt!

As a woman, who’s friends with mostly men, who care about their looks more than I ever did, or will, I’ve witnessed them getting harassed. I’ve decided to run a quick survey among my male friends; surprisingly, all the men I’ve asked did get harassed at one point in time.

That being said, they didn’t react to it as much as us women do. Since the number of men I’ve asked wasn’t sufficient to call my research valid, I decided to expand it a little more.

Men don’t admit to it, unless they’re asked directly

I decided to write a public Facebook post asking men if they got harassed before. Only a couple of men replied on the status, and a few others decided to share their experience privately.

Since the material wasn’t enough, I decided to directly ask most of the men who happened to be on the online chat. They all said they’ve seen the status, but weren’t comfortable sharing their experience in public.

Most of them think it’s shameful to feel bad about it

Many claimed, that they didn’t feel bothered by the incident(s). But when we went into details, they did admit that they were bothered, but they won’t admit to it cause it makes them feel “less manly.”

But the ones who did say they were bothered belive it’s the worst thing that happened to them

Most of the ones, who were comfortable admitting that they felt bad about it, admitted it was one of their worst experiences. They stopped dressing in a certain way or walking in certain streets. They all agree that it was a demeaning experience and that they felt belittled.

Most of them got harassed by teenage girls

This finding surprised me the most. I assumed most of them either got harassed by crazy old women, or other men. It came to my surprise that most of the men got harassed by 13 to 16 year old students in girls-only schools. Most men realise how dangerous it is to be walking alone in front of girls-only schools!

Most of the physical harassment came from other men

Only a few said they got psychically harassed by women, or girls. Many, however, said they got physically harassed by other men. I assumed it’ll be from drunk men in clubs; the majority said it’s from old MARRIED men with kids.

Some men felt bad for their harassers

Not all, but still a lot of men felt bad for women who harassed them and gave them many excuses. Shockingly, some got physically harassed by women and they still showed that they either didn’t realize what they did or pretended to be cool with it so they won’t hurt the women’s feelings.

Almost all of the ones who got harassed as kids never admitted to it

Sadly, many men who got harassed when they were kids, as young as 6 or even 4 years old, and mostly by family members, teachers or class mates. They shared their stories with me, but said it’s their first time to talk about it. Tthey never told their parents or any person of authority. When asked why, they blamed themselves for what happened and said they were raised thinking if men got assaulted, they aren’t men anymore.

 

This wasn’t a professional research that was done, and it didn’t show all of the classes and ages, but it gives an over-view of the problem we’re facing. Men are raised to oppress their feelings, don’t understand what actual manhood is, and don’t know how to deal with such situations.

The harassment issue is affecting everyone, and has to be taken seriously. Start with yourself, and create awareness. It’s not shameful that you got harassed; you shouldn’t be the one ashamed!