As if Egypt woke up one day "oh it's eid el fitr" "oh girls got sexually harassed" "what had happened?", what had happened ,been happening for so long and no body cared, sexual harassment happens on a daily basis to women around the world, and yeah it happens in Egypt more than your ability to imagine.
Here's the daily scene in Egyptian streets, girls and women no matter how they are dressed, whether veiled or not , whether decently dressed or not, from girls in baggy pants to girls in short skirts, we all get harassed daily, believe me it's daily , most of us think that harassment is just being touched by a street jerk, the truth is even listening to whistles, looks and lustful phrases are a kind of harassment known as"Verbal harassment" well known to every girl walks in streets, ride a bus, or even her own car, being the most common and frequent from of sexual harassment, it's getting worse ofcourse now by exceeding the verbal limit to the organic subtle one,it's usually ignored how this verbal harassment affects self-esteem, by putting the female in a discriminated form for being her own sex.
As sexual harassment increasing now, it shows clearly how women in our society are being sexually discriminated, it's the fact that men cannot accept our existence in the streets.
For any girl, from any social background in our society has been exposed at least once or twice in her life to such humiliation, leaving her frustrated, angry, hurt , so worried and scared.
The problem got many aspects, first of all that guys should accept women's existence with them at work, universities, public transportations, restaurants, streets , everywhere , yet that hasn't been the case 20 years ago, where some old morals were still here, in 60's and 70's (ask your parents) girls would walk normally in the street, wearing most revieling clothes at that time, 60
's and 70's fashion lines were sleeveless, short, tight, and much more revealing than nowadays clothes, even the percentage of veiled girls was not to be mentioned.
That means what, that now with the highest percentage of veiled girls in Egypt harassment increased?, then you can't blame the way girls dress for all the problem, it's just one aspect, that girls knowing that they might either get verbally or organically harassed they do sometimes dress in a way that's not suitable for riding transportations, or going work or university.
It's something variable, the way i would see a girl dressed decently might not get the same perceiving from others, but let's not blame girls ,they are the targeted preys and victims.
Okay, so i got harassed many times before, 98% of my girl friends, relatives, co-workers-colleagues-and family members got harassed too, it's not just annoying, it's self humiliating, when you feel that you're subjected to such manner from men blocking your way on the street, intentionally standing and walking close, using vulgar and offencive words ,sexual expressions, trying to touch as much as they could from females bodies.
The effect of such doings on girls is really serious, it's not just the shock and the fear, it includes,hostility towards the harasser, anger, confusion, frustration, helplessness,
powerlessness, depression, humiliation, a feeling of dirtiness, fear of crowds, fear of being alone, denial, and sadness.
Am not exaggerating i got exposed to that many times, on my way to university, work, course and so on, actually i got harassed inside of my own car which left me devastated ,as how can i protect myself , i didn't have a clue.
Here, sexual harassment happening in an Islamic society whose traditions used to be so strict, is a reflex action to what's shown on T.V famous channels (melody,and so on) ,yea but would even the dream of having clean channels ,that aren't putting women as a sex icon 24/7 will make men stop harassments , i guess the answer is"NO".
Any one could reach pornography on the Internet,famous videos between friends on mobiles,magazines,movies,even poor and uneducated people could reach that through their friends and neighbours, so the solutions is not totally on stopping the media stream of negative images of women.
Sexually frustrated society? yes very frustrated, un-employment leaving most guys dreaming about marriage, as a far fetched dream, it's everyone's right to get married and live a healthy satisfying relationship, but now in these circumstances in Egypt it's a real problem, leaving most guys ,especially jobless and ignorant ones sexually frustrated ,and taking advantage of females in streets, blaming them all the way for (as if girls forced them) their disgusting attitude.
Some will say"girls sometimes intentionally attracts guys attention" okay then, if he responded that wont be harassing, it's different.
The last straw was the group harassing happened in Down town(wust el balad) at cinema Metro, people went to watch the Great movie"3alya el tarab bel talata" the legend belly dancer "Dina" co-starred beside the hatching legend "Attya" and someone sang the 3enab song "i prefer not to mention his name,he used to sing pornographic songs in weddings in the past", any way, Dina danced in the street, Dina is ofcourse a decent belly dancer especially her belly dancing costumes are so respectful one would say she's veiled walahy, she made a blast after the movie dancing in the street, and turning on every single guy watching her, a reflex action was putting all the frustration on her, guys couldn't reach her she got body guards for protection, but decent women and girls in street don't have, so moving away from Dina, girls and women in street became the targeted prey, guys from 14 to 23 and even more grouply harassed girls and women,mean while police was probably checking university gates for any person trying to dream of free of expression or elections, but police was in a safe place watching the hassle and doing nothing, then moved to unlock the crowds and then Sweet dreams!!
We are infront of a huge moral and ethical collapse,the society is revoluting against itself,everything is ruined even people.
Granted, not all men define their wrongly understood masculinity by dehumanizing women, we've all met good guys going about their lives without forcing sexual opinions and expressions on every woman passes by, those "good guys" got a responsibility here too, silence is equal to acceptance men should help and try to stop guys they meet harassing women in any form, and urging people to accept the fundamental equal participation in public life, as it's a right granted to men and women on the same level.
God created us a man and a woman, both should accept each others existence and live with it , with respect to their feelings and emotions, men must deal with women as their sisters, mothers and friends, not as a target to sexually abuse in any form, and woman must know that too.
There's no way women will stop going to work or use transportations or just stay at home for the reason that the street is full of both kind of "Dogs", we will go to work, take courses, go to clubs,restaurants,universities, and try as much as we can to protect ourselves, till sexual harassment stop, or even decrease, it's a hostility towards hostility, frustration towards frustration, excuse girls if they took self defence classes, or held a knife or a defence spray in their bags , we need protection and no one will be there, when am trapped in with a taxi driver unzipping his pants and taking me to the unknown.
Labels: iThink
She's kissed by the hot sun..
