By Randa Darwish
Egyptian social media exploded in anger over a series of recent sexual harassment incidents that were documented in videos and widely-shared among social media users.
Earlier this week, a video showing a 40-year-old man who got stabbed to death after trying to protect his wife from being harassed on one of Alexandria beaches was widely-shared on social media.
The horrifying video shows the victim laying on the beach with his blood turning the sea water red. His wife appears beside him while screaming for a help and other men trying to surround the killer.
The video provoked an outcry among Egyptians who went to call for taking a serious action against the killer as sexual harassment incidents are seeing a sharp rise in a country were women got blamed for being harassed instead of punishing the harassers.
Another video was shared few days earlier showing three girls while being attacked in one of Cairo streets by a group of ten men who cornered them and tried to push them in the street while people standing and watching without trying to give any help.
The viral video shows the girls while screaming and crying for a help.
Translation: “A mass harassment parade in the mother of the world- Um El Dunya “Egypt” and still, Egypt ranks in the second place after New Delhi in sexual harassment rates. A whole army of men were harassing three Egyptian girls. A whole army of men and no one even thought of helping those girls out from those monsters.”
The two videos were shared thousands of times with people raising campaigns and calling to take serious actions to criminalize sexual harassment.
Translation: “What is this? And what about those who are walking behind them?”
Later on Monday, Al-Azhar Institute which forms Egypt's highest Sunni Muslim authority tweeted a series of tweets denouncing sexual harassment and forbidding all forms and acts of this phenomenon.
Translation: “Al Azhar: Sexual harassment is a forbidden act and a condemned behaviour that cannot be justified.”
Translation: “Azhar stresses that harassment is haram and deviant behavior, and whoever commits it is guilty of sin. It is also a repugnant act to normal people, and it is rejected by all laws and religions.”
In the wake of MeToo campaign around the world in 2017, a report conducted by Thomson Reuters Foundation named the capital city of Egypt, Cairo as the world’s most dangerous city for women. Similar reports have been rising since 2011 following the Egyptian uprising of 2011, however, the Egyptian authorities did not take any serious measurements to fix the problem.
