Arab women’s groups campaign against harassment in Egypt

Tahrir Square has seen a spike in sexual crimes in recent weeks The Uprising of Women in the Arab World Movement has announced a February 12 protest in cities across Egypt, targeting embassies and consulates in the hope of bringing international attention to the Egyptian phenomenon of sexual harassment.
The protest aims to change government policy and statute on street harassment, while also changing citizens’ perceptions of rape.
Female victims have to “pay with their flesh to participate in the ongoing Egyptian revolution,” the Movement said in a statement, holding President Mohammed Morsi’s ruling Freedom and Justice Party [FJP] responsible for not taking “strict measures” against rapists and sexual attackers.
The group meanwhile accused Egypt’s police and security forces of “complicity in sexual harassment,” by not providing “necessary protections” to the country’s female demonstrators.
Attacking the Egyptian media’s “lack of ethical professionalism,” the group claimed media reports focused on victim’s biographies rather than the crimes committed against them.
Uprising of Women in the Arab World has demanded revolutionary groups, political parties and civil society organisations join the protest.
24 countries worldwide have already expressed solidarity with tomorrow’s protest.
A statement from Palestinian women’s groups said: “We Palestinian women answer the appeal of Egypt’s women to revolt against all forms of oppression and persecution, be it male, sexual, colonial, religious or authoritarian.”
A concurrent vigil would be held at 1700 hrs in Jaffa, the group announced.
Lebanese women’s groups have also backed the Uprising of Women in the Arab World initiative.
“We will not remain silent anymore because our causes are one and our bodies are one, throughout the Arab world,” they said.