The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

Egyptian protesters against sexual assault are sexually assaulted

As mob heckles and gropes demonstrators, are women's rights going backwards in Egypt?

By Helen Lewis Published 09 June 2012 11:43

Tahrir Square on June 7. It has been the scene of repeated protests. Photo: Getty Images

An Egyptian rally to protest against sexual harassment ended when the participants were attacked and groped by a group of men, the Associated Press has reported.

Around 50 women, surrounded by male supporters, turned out for the demonstration on Friday in Cairo's Tahrir Square, holding placards which declared that "harassment is barbaric". But a mob of hundreds of men overwhelmed the supporters and began to heckle and grope the women.

Sally Zohney, who helped organise the protest, voiced her disgust on Twitter: "I'm traumatised by the testimonials friends r sharing of today's attack".

There are growing numbers of reports from women who were involved in last year's Arab Spring protests that the mood in the country is turning, and that street harassment is returning. The writer and activist Ahdaf Soueif told last week's New Statesman magazine: "Women were very careful to say that they were taking part in the revolution as citizens. Social problems such as harassment on the streets, and so on, vanished during the 18 days. They’re back now. What is new is the way that women respond. There’s graffiti, stickers, women taking self-defence classes, so the fightback is on."

Journalist Mona El-Tawahy is one of those who have been injured in protests: she was arrested in Cairo last year and detained for 12 hours, and both her arms were broken. She reported that she had been sexually assaulted while in detention, and later wrote an essay for Foreign Policy magazine about the "war on women" in the Middle East. It argued:

An entire political and economic system -- one that treats half of humanity like animals -- must be destroyed along with the other more obvious tyrannies choking off the region from its future. Until the rage shifts from the oppressors in our presidential palaces to the oppressors on our streets and in our homes, our revolution has not even begun.

Tags: Egypt Arab Spring

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31 comments

Fri, 2012-07-20 10:58 — Goji (not verified)

Nice article..... interesting.
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Thu, 2012-07-05 21:39 — ahmadnasr89

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Sat, 2012-06-23 22:09 — terianne gray (not verified)

All the men of the racists as same abuser sexually out of control to touching it the kidnappers murder children , women , in this world .

Mon, 2012-06-11 22:35 — Fraziel1

'boog, so the march was a load of feminists? No surprise there then. You are kidding yourself on if you think this is prevalent everywhere. That is just a cop out so you do not have to face the issue which is islamic teaching has women as second class citizens and it is not just extremist muslims. I have seen it first hand and read about it in moderate islamic countries such as Turkey and Azerbaijan. It is not just Saudi Arabia and Iran.The left need to stop avoiding the issue but then pigs might fly.

Mon, 2012-06-11 06:12 — AlexTom

I feel for the safety of those brave women. Unfortunately, many have been subjected to so much abuse and humiliation, that they have probably developed a traumatic disorder like: http://www.psychone.net/ptsd.php

Mon, 2012-06-11 06:10 — AlexTom

Enough with the harrassment. We are civilized people, aren't we?? so why can't we all learn to get along??

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Sun, 2012-06-10 22:22 — Fraziel1

I wonder how the left and feminists will react to this as usually the need not to criticise islam ( and lets face it islam will have been at the root of what happened here) or be seen as racist trumps standing up for women. So come on lefties, lets hear you criticise islam when its due, as it clearly is here.

Mon, 2012-06-11 08:57 — BagLady (not verified)

It is the misuse of Islam that is the root of the problem, not Islam per se. It is the misogynist, zealous holy man, extreme and subjective in his interpretation of The Book, whether it be Old Testament, Koran or New Testament.

I once asked an old Arab desert horse dealer how much he was asking for his beautiful black stallion. He was totally outraged. Furious that he had been insulted by a mere woman speaking to him about business.

I shall go and try to discover statistics to back up my suggestion that they represent an huge percentage of sexual gropers and dirty old men.

The current situation Egypt finds itself in was inevitable that day they celebrated in Tahrir Square. It was so obviously a 'soft' coup by the military, as they sat to the side watching the students do their ousting for them. The people, rather than seeing it as winning the first of many battles, cheered and naively entrusted a mightier foe with temporary power. Power is probably the most difficult privilege to give up.

Mon, 2012-06-11 10:57 — Julia Harris

No, it is Islam that is the Problem and its adherence to it by Muslims.

Sun, 2012-06-10 15:39 — simoned

I am just trying to think of why would someone attack the supporters of a just cause?
I wonder how bad is this if they attack those woman in plain sight. joculete

Sun, 2012-06-10 10:15 — Julia Harris

Islamic Apartheid - women worth less then men, controlled and beaten by men as setout in there holy book the Koran.

Mon, 2012-06-11 05:52 — Francis Qanchez (not verified)

This is not right. Everyone was created equal. So man and women should be treated as equals.

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Sun, 2012-06-10 07:57 — rain (not verified)

A Large number of professional middle class liberals will be leaving Egypt shorty. The political-left have again gained a great victory for forces of reaction. The scourge of Mohammedanism is playing the political-left like a fine violin. You only have to understand the past to see the future. Pre-Islamic Egypt was the granary of Europe, just like the pre-Bolshevik Ukraine; now both have to import food. Pre-Islamic Syria and Asia Minor suffered a similar fate under Umar to the highly developed and prosperous East Germany and Czechoslovakia after 1945. Both Islam and Communism oppose the preconditions for successful economic development in principle as well as in practice. In both cases, attempts to copy Western methods of production failed because they were not accompanied by the essential changes of social, political, and legal structure…”

Sat, 2012-06-09 19:46 — Frederick. (not verified)

Why do people feel the need to excuse barbarities committed in Moslem world against women, Gays, Jews, converts, non-Moslems, Christians and westerners?

Sat, 2012-06-09 20:57 — jankaas (not verified)

are you going to post the exact same question on every single thread until you get the answer you want?
btw what on earth is the answer you want?

Sun, 2012-06-10 13:50 — Spoba24 (not verified)

This person is committed or should that be, this person should be committed.

Sun, 2012-06-10 00:08 — Frederick. (not verified)

Hey jackarse are you once again posting crap on behalf of your co-religionist women-stoners, gay-hangers and Jew-haters ?

Sun, 2012-06-10 09:59 — McMac

You're a very strange man Frederick. Or you could be a woman, who knows? Or transgender or born with indeterminate gender, it be wrong of me to force my binary conceptions of gender on a stranger. LOOK, all I'm trying to say is you're a weird obsessive. Your reproductive organs, or lack off them, don't need to be the issue here.

Sat, 2012-06-09 14:46 — boog (not verified)

@JJJ - It was a march in Leeds last year. I saw several women spat at, some were groped, everyone was jeered and shouted at in very aggressive and violent terms. Someone wrote to the Yorkshire Post about it at the time, link below. My point is that this type of hostility toward women protesting for their rights is quite prevalent all over the world, it isn't particular to the Middle East.

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/yep-letters/letter_shocked_by...

Sun, 2012-06-10 10:06 — McMac

This is bloody awful.

What was behind the behavior of the attckers? Was there any particular 'message' in their rants?

Sun, 2012-06-10 09:40 — rain (not verified)

There's a fundamental difference between the drunken lout outside the Northern Monkey pub in Leeds and the scourge of Mohammed’s fundamentalist followers. A true believer doesn’t need to fill himself with alcohol to become a bigoted, misogynistic, homophobic, Jew hater that comes quite naturally, the modern political-left, to some people's surprise, are on the side of the fascists. “Does anyone beg to differ”?

Sun, 2012-06-10 14:03 — Spoba24 (not verified)

A fascist is a fascist a fascist,weather they are Mohammedan Fundamentalists or the religious right wing nuts of the Jewish State of Israel or the fascist thugs of Tel Aviv's night of broken glass.

Sun, 2012-06-10 16:48 — rain (not verified)

Reichskristallnacht… was one of the most shameful events of National Socialist Germany. Although the Jews suffered initially, the greatest harm was ultimately done to Germany and the German people. Just like the German’s you are fighting for the destruction of all the freedoms that you enjoy. You are fighting for the defeat of your own values. You’re a slave seeking slavery. My awful apologetic friend one should never try to defend the indefensible.

Sun, 2012-06-10 16:25 — Coleridge (not verified)

The problem with your very simple comment is that the vast majority of Israeli support mainstream liberal-democratic political parties in democratic Israel.
The vast majority of Moslems in Moslem states support islamofascist clericalism regimes, military dictatorships, the apartheid system in illegal racist Pakistan or backward primitive feudal regimes. Hence the absence of liberal - democratic parties in any of the Moslem regimes that inhabit this planet.

Sun, 2012-06-10 16:56 — rain (not verified)

You can not reason with the unreasonable all forms of fascism needs to be confronted. The left are defending the most radically intolerant and hateful ideology on this planet. ... They are already subjugated! They are already their useful idiots.

Sat, 2012-06-09 15:35 — JJJ (not verified)

Another thing Boog, you claim that it is 'usual' for women to be assaulted in the manner that they were in Egypt? I think that that is an exaggeration.

Sat, 2012-06-09 15:32 — JJJ (not verified)

Yes, having read the letter, I see now. The point can be made though that the UK thankfully doesn't have a polity that encourages women to forgo their rights - as state mandated policy. In other words, the West is still more enlightened - not perfect yet - as regards womens' rights, whereas secular women in Egypt are understandably fearful of being sent back to the stone age.

Sat, 2012-06-09 13:42 — AndrewD (not verified)

Well good luck to them, but there isn't going to be any change any time soon.

The regime that has replaced Mubarak is a lot more reactonary and in the long run likely to be a lot more oppressive - especially towards women, Christians and other minorities.

As for gays and apostates - don't even think about it.

There is simply no appetite for real change in Egypt except amng a small minority of middle class people. Most want a return to islam and that is exactly what they will get.

We can expect to see the Copts reduced to slave status - most who can will leave the country. Women wil be back in burkahs and routinely subejected to FGM. Also better go see the Egyptian relics now because these are unlikely to survive.

The Alexandra library was burned to the ground in the first weeks of the "arab Spring" and there was barely a squeak about it in the western press. To get an idea of the scale of this tragedy, imagine someone burning down the British Museum Library. Items that are irreplaceable have been lost by the sackload.

Egypt is heading backwards and nothing will change until the people get really sick of it and overthrow the islamists, but that will take a long time.

Its much easier to seek scapegoats - the Israelis; foreigners; the USA, Britain etc. There is no stomach to face the hard work of social change and self-analysis. We are more likely to see a war agaimst Israel or even an attack on Europe than any real attempt to create a peaceful and fair society anywhere in the middle east at the present time.

This is the bane of the Middle East and the reason why it will stay mired in failure until something changes.

Sat, 2012-06-09 13:08 — JJJ (not verified)

Did you? I've searched on the internet and couldn't find evidence of this. Could you elaborate?

Also, let's remember that last year the reporter Lara Logan was brutalised and savaged by thugs in Tahrir Square who also screamed 'Jew' and 'Israeli' at her while beating and stabbing her.

Sat, 2012-06-09 12:51 — boog (not verified)

I witnessed women on a Reclaim the Night march here in Britain being screamed at, verbally abused, spat at and groped. So this isn't surprising, in fact it's usual.