Rock on my Egyptian Sisters!
Ariela Haro von Mogel April 24th, 2009
According to much of the mainstream media, you would think nothing good ever happens in this world. Apparently, horrible things are easy to report and receive a lot of attention. But yesterday, I finally heard something good on the news. As I was listening to the BBC, I learned that Egyptian women are finally fighting back against Egyptian men who sexually harass them in public. As with almost every single place that has ever existed on the planet, women have almost always been second class citizens compared with men and have been perpetual victims of sexual assault.
Personally, I have always been in favor of feminist vigilantism when the law and society does not come to your aid.
Feminism – Malcolm X style!
Malcolm X would organize groups of disenchanted black men and fight against white police officers who would come into urban areas mostly to harass and pick on black people. So they would fight back. The police had no empathy for them. And the judicial system is highly biased against black men.
The same goes for countries whose judicial system and society in general has no empathy for women’s travails. If a man harasses you and a police officer will not come to your aid, I say kick him in the family jewels! Knock him upside his head and run for it. And that is exactly what Egyptian women are doing. They are enrolling, in statistically significant numbers, in self-defense classes. And the numbers of women enrolled in these classes just keeps growing every year. The problem is bad enough where women are actually flouting entrenched ideas about their place in society and engaging in violent contact against male harassers.
Egyptian society did have a landmark case, though, where a young woman who was groped repeatedly by a man on the street, decided to take his sorry a** to the police. Amazingly, she won her case, and the man went to jail for three years! This is probably very good for women’s rights, as it was a particularly harsh example to set for men who think they can get away with this type of thing. Check out the BBC news on this one.
Another interesting thing about this was that a women’s rights’ organization did a survey on the extent of sexual harassment in public places. According to the survey, the men who answered sure weren’t lying. Men were asked that if they saw a woman being sexually harassed on the street, would they do anything to help? Two-thirds of men surveyed answered (honestly) that they would help if the woman was dressed conservatively, but would help the harasser with his job if she was dressed inappropriately! Good to know. Now I know I can harass homeless people on the street because they wear shabbier clothing than I do – and feel vindicated by it. Muah-ha-ha!
Women have been dealing with this type of behavior for eons and we are not at fault for it. Men have some serious psychological issues and social privileges that needs to be addressed. If some guy tries to grab you or attack you in public, go ahead and kick him in the nads.
I have to say this because it’s so ridiculous. Obviously, harassment is not cool but what if a women got harassed being dressed in a chicken suit?
Yes Jie,
It is wrong to harass a woman (or man) in public when she’s wearing a chicken suit. No one, and I mean no one, deserves to be harassed in public, especially when wearing a chicken suit.
Just laugh, point, and stare. But please, do not harass.