Working with Three Worlds, we all keep our eye on the news from each other's countries and across the region as a whole. We post stories on Twitter and Facebook so that our teammates see what we're seeing - they can comment on validity or add additional experience. These stories range from informative, cultural, political, societal, and sometimes just humorous.
One of the stories recently tweeted by our Regional Coordinator Patrick Nachtigall is no laughing matter. The story in the Christian Science Monitor is entitled "Actor, dressed as woman, feels Egypt's sexual harassment."
The article highlights an Egyptian television program's efforts to continue to bring the ongoing problem
of sexual harassment to the public's attention. Since our arrival, we've noted various media outlets running stories and highlighting the efforts of various groups attempting to put an end to what this article states as "an endemic, longstanding, highly controversial, and sensitive subject in Egypt".
We have received various emails through our brief tenure here linking to stories that people have read regarding such incidents of harassment. Some have been high profile events, like last year's British journalist horrific event, and the CBS correspondents event the year before that.
These, unfortunately, are not simply stories - we have first hand accounts of horrible and saddening incidents of harassment to women and girls we know.
In this article, the actor, Waleed Hammad, was hired by Belail Media Production and Consulting to dress as a woman and take to the streets of Cairo. Apparently, he went in various forms of dress, including a niqab, which is the black, full veil attire of some Muslim women. He was to report his experiences and feelings for an episode titled "Sexual Harassment in Egypt", which is one episode of a 7-part series.
Hammad recounts various forms of propositioning that he experienced--regardless of how he was dressed. In a quote that summarizes his overall experience, Hammad says, "I realized that simply walking on the street, for a woman, is such a huge effort, a psychological effort and a bodily effort. It’s like women are besieged.”
My wife and daughter have experienced the verbal and even physical attempts of harassment first hand. It is difficult for them when we go somewhere, to walk from one place to another, or even to go into public areas like stores. However, they are not timidly avoiding any possibility of harassment, but cautiously and courageously stepping out to do what needs to be done day after day. Though the boys and I get the occasional looks for being "outsiders", we have little understanding for what the females are experiencing. My wife has had to confront me on this lack of understanding--because, as a male, I can forget what it must be like for her. She doesn't get the luxury of forgetting--and even if she did, she can be reminded quickly on any street. At such moments of confrontation, or in reading articles like this, I'm simultaneously ashamed for my lack of empathy and amazed by their depth of courage.
As sex is continually abused in many societies--by it's trivializing what was intended to be a wonderful shared marriage experience, by crude humor, by the encouragement of promiscuity/fornication, by the ease of access to pornography, and by countless other travesties--we further create environments that breed such behaviors. We all need to examine our lives and choices from time to time to weed out any activities that propagate the wrong expressions of sex, that we may be the examples of the benefits of purity in God's gift of sex--not that we may practice condemnation, but with compassion, others may see the light by comparison. Please--do not take that as judging/preaching--that may be more for my benefit than for any reader; I think that those who know me know that I try to address the planks in my own eyes rather than chasing splinters in the eyes of others.
I don't want to go rambling on into other areas. This post was intended to highlight one creative attempt to counter a serious problem and to recognize the courage of my wife and daughter.
Pray for Egypt...
UPDATE:
On Sunday, May 26, I found this video posted by CNN that includes interviews with the actor Waleed Hammad and producers of the exposé, as well as video from the show that documents his transformation and scenes from his experiences on the streets of Cairo. A good follow-up to this post...
One of the stories recently tweeted by our Regional Coordinator Patrick Nachtigall is no laughing matter. The story in the Christian Science Monitor is entitled "Actor, dressed as woman, feels Egypt's sexual harassment."
The article highlights an Egyptian television program's efforts to continue to bring the ongoing problem
 |
| This picture was posted by Ahram Online in October 2012 with this article about plans for new laws to stop sexual harassment. |
We have received various emails through our brief tenure here linking to stories that people have read regarding such incidents of harassment. Some have been high profile events, like last year's British journalist horrific event, and the CBS correspondents event the year before that.
These, unfortunately, are not simply stories - we have first hand accounts of horrible and saddening incidents of harassment to women and girls we know.
In this article, the actor, Waleed Hammad, was hired by Belail Media Production and Consulting to dress as a woman and take to the streets of Cairo. Apparently, he went in various forms of dress, including a niqab, which is the black, full veil attire of some Muslim women. He was to report his experiences and feelings for an episode titled "Sexual Harassment in Egypt", which is one episode of a 7-part series.
Hammad recounts various forms of propositioning that he experienced--regardless of how he was dressed. In a quote that summarizes his overall experience, Hammad says, "I realized that simply walking on the street, for a woman, is such a huge effort, a psychological effort and a bodily effort. It’s like women are besieged.”
My wife and daughter have experienced the verbal and even physical attempts of harassment first hand. It is difficult for them when we go somewhere, to walk from one place to another, or even to go into public areas like stores. However, they are not timidly avoiding any possibility of harassment, but cautiously and courageously stepping out to do what needs to be done day after day. Though the boys and I get the occasional looks for being "outsiders", we have little understanding for what the females are experiencing. My wife has had to confront me on this lack of understanding--because, as a male, I can forget what it must be like for her. She doesn't get the luxury of forgetting--and even if she did, she can be reminded quickly on any street. At such moments of confrontation, or in reading articles like this, I'm simultaneously ashamed for my lack of empathy and amazed by their depth of courage.
As sex is continually abused in many societies--by it's trivializing what was intended to be a wonderful shared marriage experience, by crude humor, by the encouragement of promiscuity/fornication, by the ease of access to pornography, and by countless other travesties--we further create environments that breed such behaviors. We all need to examine our lives and choices from time to time to weed out any activities that propagate the wrong expressions of sex, that we may be the examples of the benefits of purity in God's gift of sex--not that we may practice condemnation, but with compassion, others may see the light by comparison. Please--do not take that as judging/preaching--that may be more for my benefit than for any reader; I think that those who know me know that I try to address the planks in my own eyes rather than chasing splinters in the eyes of others.
 |
| how do much you know about Egypt link to CS Monitor online quiz |
I don't want to go rambling on into other areas. This post was intended to highlight one creative attempt to counter a serious problem and to recognize the courage of my wife and daughter.
Pray for Egypt...
UPDATE:
On Sunday, May 26, I found this video posted by CNN that includes interviews with the actor Waleed Hammad and producers of the exposé, as well as video from the show that documents his transformation and scenes from his experiences on the streets of Cairo. A good follow-up to this post...
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