An Egyptian Woman in Cairo

She refused to cover her long, curly black hair; she would walk with confidence and determination on the street. As a result, she was often the target of verbal and even physical harassment from Egyptian men, both shockingly young and disturbingly old alike. Her strong personality intimidated the men around her. She could almost be a foreigner in her own country. Egyptian machismo and misogyny was about power, domination and control, in a country where the majority have little control over their own lives.

One day I told her, “The next time a man says a bad word to you in the street you should ask him how he would feel if his sister, or daughter even, was spoken to in that way.” She laughed at my naivety. “They don’t care!” she retorted. “They would just laugh and continue making comments.”

“It’s not just me”, she continued. “Even women in hijabs face constant harassment.”

It was true. I would regularly witness verbal harassment against very modesty dressed Egyptian women, and often culturally sensitive/modestly dressed European and American women as well, in the crowded and anonymous streets of downtown Cairo. Here, in streets full of thousands of strangers, men could act like fools and say terrible things without facing retribution or shame from their neighbors back in the more insular districts of the city. Downtown is by far the most cosmopolitan area of Cairo, yet it is sadly a place where one sees the most blatantly ugly side of gender relations and sexual frustration in Egyptian society. As a man, albeit a “progressive Westerner”, it infuriates me that some men truly have no respect for any women and will use every excuse in the book (from religion to culture) in order to justify their behavior. I have even heard some arguments that men lack self-control and so thus, if a women is harassed, groped, or even raped, it will always be her fault and no one else’s.

Fortunately, there are no shortages of organizations, and even dedicated groups of women, that are determined to address this issue and fight the prejudice and harassment of women in Egyptian society. There is even a relatively recent project entitled “Harassmap”, which highlights areas in Cairo that are known for having higher incidents of abuse against women. It was created primarily as a resource for Arabic speaking Egyptian women, but it is also useful for foreigners (especially independent travelers and long-time residents) as well.

Sadly, Egyptian men in general are still far too slow in acknowledging a problem that “tarnishes their reputation”. Well, foreign women themselves have been warned for years about Egyptian men and their reputation for being inappropriate, to say the least, towards the opposite sex. No doubt that a female traveler who is fair skinned and blonde in particular will get a plethora of unwanted attention from local men, regardless of how modestly she is dressed.

But it is Egyptian women themselves who have to deal with this sort of behavior on a daily basis. They are the ones who bear the most suffering and humiliation. A recent 2010 Egyptian film, entitled 687, was the first to address this issue in the Egyptian cinema. It is a story of three Egyptian women who, after being victims of harassment in different situations, decide to take violent retribution against their perpetrators. I have yet to see the film, but it is already causing quite a stir in Egypt.

Although we all know that every Egyptian male is not a perpetrator of sexual harassment against women, innocent women cannot fight this battle alone. I say to all Egyptian men: speak out for the sake of your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, and your cousins.