Men & Women Agree Sexual Assault Common in Egypt

Boys Will Be Boys

Women in Egypt Face Serious Harassment Every Day NYTimes

AOC has previously covered the 2008 study by the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights in which 83 perent of Egyptian women reported sexual harassment and 62 percent of Egyptian men agreed that they had sexually harassed women.

Today’s NYTimes picks up the story of Egyptian women moving beyond the numbers to real life experiences. Warda won’t enter an elevator in Egypt, without a woman accompanying her. The elevator often goes out in Egypt, leaving Warda caught in darkness with a strange man.

“We didn’t really look at each other; I was reading some messages on my phone,” she said. The electricity went out.

Then I felt the hand of the man in my pants. I asked him to stop, but he said I better shut up or he would take his knives out,” she said, fighting back tears. He opened his pants and pressed himself against her for what felt like hours, she said. Luckily, the lights came back on. “He stopped and let go of me. I just didn’t want to look into his face.”