EGYPT: Thousands in Cairo protest against sexual harassment

Record ID: 335381

  • Title: EGYPT: Thousands in Cairo protest against sexual harassment
  • Date: 6th February 2013
  • Summary: CAIRO, EGYPT (FEBRUARY 6, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS MARCHING CARRYING BANNERS AND FLAGS PROTESTER CARRYING BANNER READING IN ARABIC "Mursi = Mubarak. Harassment is a regime's crime" PROTESTERS MARCHING CARRYING BANNERS AND FLAGS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PROTESTER AND DIRECTOR OF THE EGYPTIAN CENTRE FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS, NAHED ABO EL QOMSAAN, SAYING: "What happened i
  • Embargoed: 21st February 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Egypt
  • Country: Egypt
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA4XOE8EUNVIO2CSQTD4U32HOBX
  • Story Text: A few thousand Egyptians marched in downtown Cairo on Wednesday (February 6), condemning recent acts of sexual harassment that have been taking place in mass protests.
    The recent demonstrations during the second anniversary of Egypt's revolution, 19 sexual harassment incidents were reported by online sexual harassment campaigns.
    Several of these campaigns that were set up to fight sexual harassment reported groping and more violent forms of rape during the protests.
    Protesters expressed anger at the violence against women, and said it was designed to keep women off the streets and away from protests.
    "What happened in the squares on the 25th and after was a crime against humanity with aggressive actions against civilians, which happened in an organised and pre-planned way in order to empty the squares and scare the opposition and send messages to the whole society so that they are scared to express their opinion," said Nahed Abo El Qomsaan, a women's rights activist.
    Some women in the march said the violence will not deter them.
    "Even though we are not young women, we were still harassed. This means that it's not about young women only, but they harass any woman in the square to break them and stop them from going down. I am telling them, we will go down, and we'll never be broken and we'll go down and stay in the square," said a protester named Lara.
    Women's rights have been questioned after the passing of the new Egyptian constitution with many activists accusing it of undermining women's rights.
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