Combating harassment in Egypt
We ran a post on alarming levels of sexual harassment in Egypt last year. MR points to a related news article here.
Muslimah Media Watch comments on this disturbing phenomenon and commends a grassroots effort to combat it and educate youth:
The slogan of the group’s campaign is “Respect yourself: Egypt still has real men.” I love this slogan for two reasons. The first is that it challenges one of the core values of traditional notions of masculinity: sexual power over women. Harassing women is not a sign of masculinity; it’s a sign of cowardice. It’s great that Muslims are beginning to recognize this.
Another reason I love this slogan is because it brings the responsibility for sexual harassment back on men. For too long, sexual harassment has been considered the responsibility of women. “Real men” take the responsibility in treating women with respect and sexual autonomy and they also take responsibility in stopping other men from disrespecting women’s sexuality. This is why the campaign not only focuses on getting men to stop sexually harassing women, but to also stop other men from doing it, too. This is especially important when a lot of sexual harassment in Egypt takes place in public.
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