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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

It's Eid - time for Egyptians to sexually harass women!

On Friday, Egypt Independent reported:
A local activist group is organizing an initiative to counter sexual harassment, a trend that has become associated with Eid al-Fitr celebrations in recent years.

Imprint Movement, which defines itself as a social, volunteer-based group aiming to change harmful elements of society, plans to organize popular patrols made up of its members and other volunteers to roam metro stations to stop harassers during Eid.

Eid became a “season for harassment,” movement member Abdel Fattah Mahmoud said, explaining that this is why the movement decided to launch the patrols during all of Eid.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be working:
Vice police have detected numerous instances of sexual harassment on the first two days of the Islamic Eid al-Fitr holiday at several public areas in Cairo, the state-run news agency MENA reported.

At the Giza Zoo, young people who formed groups to protect females from harassment were assaulted by the harassers, which caused violence to break out between both sides. Police arrested several and referred them to prosecution.

The website of the independent daily Al-Tahrir said Tuesday that several women were heard yelling on the Nile Corniche in front of the State TV building. It added that the same area on Monday had witnessed fights as some youth, and even children, allegedly molested female passers-by.

Fustat Garden also saw tussles as hundreds of young men encircled a number of girls and attempted to assault them before others managed to free them.

Eyewitnesses said that motorbike riders on Gameat al-Dawal al-Arabiya, a popular gathering place, harassed girls amid a total absence of police.