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The author investigates two questions: How did the politics of disappointment unfold among female activists after the 2011 Egyptian uprising and specifically under the current regime? What were the effects of the strong sense of emotional disappointment on women’s activism and collective action? She argues that disappointment did not mark the end of politics and activism among women’s groups in Egypt. Although the situation is complicated and activism is restricted in Egypt, in this research participants affirm that their experience in the uprising has changed them, and that “things cannot go back to the old days.” A focus on hope and disappointment makes the experiences of activists central to the analysis. It allows researchers to reclaim the voices of female activists in explaining the challenges and opportunities that developed after the uprising, and how these developments influenced and shaped their experience, movement, and mobilization.
The objectification of women pervades all aspects of Egyptian public and private life. This article illustrates the epidemic of sexual harassment that Egyptian women face and some initiatives taken to combat it.
Describes the main legislative instruments protecting women from sexual violence in Egypt, up to 2016. These are: the Egyptian Constitution of 2014 and the Criminal Code of 1937 and amendments to it. The report also discusses suggestions which have been made for improving the legal system.
According to available data, Egypt has higher than average rates of sexual harassment for the Middle East and North Africa region and many other countries in the Global South. This article explores how one organization, HarassMap, has mapped sexual harassment using crowd-sourced technology, engaged in anti-sexual harassment activities and sought to change social norms to promote an environment of zero tolerance. The authors highlight the evolving activism since 2010, and the lessons learned, within an environment influenced by restrictive political, religious and socio-cultural spheres. This article shows how anti-sexual harassment activities can occur in challenging contexts, using crowdsourcing mapping, when traditional methods are illegal or could lead to violence. The authors draw on these experiences to reflect on more effective forms of support that external actors can provide within restrictive environments.
See also Bernardi, Chiara (2018) ‘HarassMap: The Silent Revolution for Women’s Rights in Egypt’ in Maestri Elena, Annemarie Profanter (eds.) Arab Women and the Media in Changing Landscapes. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 215-227.
The author analyzes the role played by the independent organization HarassMap, run by Egyptian men and women, with the aim to “put an end to social acceptance of sexual harassment” in the country. HarassMap situates itself at the intersection of activism, digital media and semiotics. It is an interactive map that enables sexual harassment to become visible and “exposed” in a country where bystanders turn a blind eye to instances of harassment and even violence.
Although sexual harassment is a worldwide phenomenon, it is noteworthy in Egypt, which recently occupied a top position on the map of sexual harassment on a world scale. In November 2013, Egypt was declared by the Thomson Reuters Foundation as the worst country for women to live in within the Arab World, when compared to twenty-two other Arab countries, largely because of its female sexual harassment rates. The United Nations Population Fund declared Egypt as ranking “second in the world after Afghanistan in terms of this issue.” In the years following the 2011 revolution, the nature of sexual harassment in Egyptian society was transformed from a hidden phenomenon to an overtly prevalent social epidemic. This study argues that the “weaponization” of sexual harassment is a common ground where class struggles, state policies, and women’s empowerment intertwine in post-revolutionary Egyptian society.
The author highlights the peculiarities of the ‘MeToo’ movement in the United States, and the differences between North American and Egyptian society. She then describes the origin and tactics of Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment and Assault (OpAntiSH), a women-led, feminist and civilian group combatting sexual assault in Cairo
This chapter discusses women’s dual struggle in the context of the Arab Spring: the political struggle to secure civil rights and political rights, and the social struggle to secure gender equality. While the former can be enshrined in constitutions and enforced through the judicial branch, the latter is much harder to pin down, and even harder to enforce, because it deals with cultural mindsets and entrenched social norms. This chapter uses the example of Egypt to show how within the actual struggle for political rights, women experienced the worst forms of sexual violence, highlighting the long struggle ahead. It also stresses the efforts by Egyptian women to continue their parallel sociopolitical struggles, as evidenced in their tireless attempts to fight sexual harassment.
Nahed Eltantawy discusses the influence ‘MeToo’ had on the anti-sexual harassment movement in Egypt and the women-led initiatives that occurred consequently.
This paper identifies the impact of rampant sexual harassment on Egypt’s legal culture. As it had been vaguely defined in Egyptian laws and largely condoned by the society and justice system, sexual harassment increased over the years in both the frequency and in the intensity of its violence. As a result, legal initiatives and grassroots movements arose attempting to criminalise sexual harassment and end its social acceptability. With the fall of Mubarak, the human rights movements optimistically continued to call for an anti-sexual harassment law, but due to the continuing political turmoil, the struggle was more arduous than expected. Three years after the uprising, sexual harassment was finally criminalised and efforts to change public attitudes towards it continue, but the will of the state to enforce the law, beyond statements and promises, is yet to be proven.
In Egypt, research shows that a large number of women have been harassed at least once in their lifetime. The Egyptian Government, international organizations and non-governmental organizations have been working for several years to combat sexual harassment. With the widespread use of online and social media in Egypt, thse have become an effective and easily accessible means of conveying combating sexual harassment. The study is based on the Social Ecological Model, and seeks to identify how online and social media could be used to combat harassment through social change, social mobilization, and advocacy. The study is based on a case study of HarassMap – an Egyptian NGO working on combating sexual harassment through online and social media. Findings of the study show that online and social media could be used following a social change and social mobilization approach to: (1) encourage sexual harassment survivors to respond to harassment through changing beliefs, increasing self-efficacy, and changing behavior through social prompting; (2) encourage bystander intervention through changing beliefs, increasing bystander-efficacy, and changing behavior through social prompting; (3) change society’s attitudes and beliefs when assigning responsibility and attribution of sexual harassment and increase the society’s collective-efficacy to fight acceptability of harassment; (4) argue for organizational change to have sexual harassment-free workplaces/educational institutions through targeting the organization and its surrounding environment; and (5) campaign for more stringent sexual harassment law/law enforcement.
This paper connects aspects of public sexual violence against women generally, and politicized sexual violence in 21st-century Egypt in particular, arguing that successive political regimes in Egypt have produced and maintained a spatial culture of humiliation and subordination as a political tool to silence and oppress women and prevent opposition. This paper assesses the successes and failures of public feminism in Egypt in addressing this culture of female humiliation and isolation in public spaces, with a particular focus on fighting politicized forms of sexual violence directed against women since 2011. It also argues that sexual violence against women, and the repression of public feminism in Egypt, are parts of the failure of the processes of democratic transition.
The online version of Vol. 1 of the bibliography was made possible due to the generous support of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC). ICNC is an independent, non-profit educational foundation that develops and encourages the study and use of civilian-based, nonmilitary strategies aimed at establishing and defending human rights, democratic self-rule and justice worldwide.
For more information about ICNC, please see their website.
The online version of Vol. 2 of the bibliography was made possible due to the generous support of The Network for Social Change. The Network for Social Change is a group of individuals providing funding for progressive social change, particularly in the areas of justice, peace and the environment.
For more information about The Network for Social Change, please visit their website.
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