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"One sociologist, Dalal Al Bizri, sees a strong link between growing religious conservatism and sexual harassment." This sociologist also blames Saudi influence, which is not untrue, but, of course, if this Agence France-Presse article properly discussed the Islamic underpinnings of those attitudes, and why Muslims in Egypt have been receptive to them, it certainly wouldn't appear in the Khaleej Times' "Women One" feature:
CAIRO - From lewd looks to inappropriate touching, experts say Egypt’s growing street harassment of women is a deep-rooted and largely ignored problem shackling the country’s progress.
Sexual harassment in public areas is not limited to a specific age category or social class, says the independent Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights (ECWR), which is spearheading a campaign against this “social cancer” in Egypt.
Nor does an outward expression of piety protect from sexual harassment, generally defined as “all unwelcome behaviour of a sexual nature, making women feel uncomfortable and unsafe.”
[...]
According to the state National Centre for Social and Criminal Research, sexual crimes are on the rise but while they give no official figures, ECWR says that two women are raped every hour in this country of 80 million and that 90 percent of offenders are jobless men.
There are many contributing factors to the increase in sexual harassment. Rising unemployment may push some men to display their machismo on the streets. The huge cost of marriage and the fact that sex outside marriage is forbidden may also explain the behaviour, experts say.
“Men take out their frustration, not just sexual, against women,” Engy Ghozlan, who runs the anti-harassment campaign at ECWR, told AFP.
But some men, who believe a woman’s job is to look after the home, say that those out on the street are fair game.
“When (a woman) walks out into the street in tight trousers and tight belts, she deserves what she gets,” said Mohamed Al Sayyed, 32, who works as an assistant at an upmarket hairdresser in Cairo.
“The women who come here are different from the ones in my village,” he said.
Sayyed grew up in a village near Menya, in the conservative Egyptian south. “My female relatives would never be seen swaying in the street like this,” he said, defensively explaining the occasional wolf whistles “and more” he directs at Cairene women.
One sociologist, Dalal Al Bizri, sees a strong link between growing religious conservatism and sexual harassment.
Impact
She told AFP that a puritan view of Islam brought over from religiously strict Saudi Arabia is partly responsible for the ”culture of hate” against women.
“In the sermons of wahhabi (ultra-conservative) preachers on satellite television, we hear the worst things about women, like the fact that they should not be on the street but at home... that they have an inferior status,” Bizri said.
Did the Wahhabis make it up? No. How about an "army of Robert Spencer wannabes?" No, not them, either. A few examples:
The Prophet said, "I looked at Paradise and saw that the majority of its residents were the poor; and I looked at the (Hell) Fire and saw that the majority of its residents were women." (Bukhari 7.62.126)
Once Allah's Apostle went out to the Musalla (to offer the prayer) to 'Id-al-Adha or Al-Fitr prayer. Then he passed by the women and said, "O women! Give alms, as I have seen that the majority of the dwellers of Hell-fire were you (women)." They asked, "Why is it so, O Allah's Apostle ?" He replied, "You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you. A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you." The women asked, "O Allah's Apostle! What is deficient in our intelligence and religion?" He said, "Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?" They replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in her intelligence. Isn't it true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses?" The women replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in her religion." (Bukhari 1.6.301)
Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great. (Qur'an 4:34)
The article continues:
The damage is not only to women’s psyche but to the whole country’s economic development, according to ECWR.
[...]
However, one stumbling block is that authorities refuse to admit there is a problem, Ghozlan said. And when they do, it’s a question of “OK, it exists, but it’s very exaggerated in the media.”
According to her centre, of the 2,500 women who reported cases of sexual harassment to ECWR, only 12 percent went to the police with their complaint.
It is “a total lack of confidence in the police and judicial systems,” she said.
Following the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in 2006, women’s rights activists angrily spoke out against what they called authorities’ acceptance of sexual harassment against women, after a mob of men openly molested women in central Cairo.
The incident was widely reported in the press, and some bloggers posted footage on their websites.
“They were touching women all over, the veiled ones and the non-veiled ones,” said Wael Abbas, an Egyptian blogger who witnessed the event.
The interior ministry at the time denied any mass harassment took place, saying it had not received any formal complaints.
Posted by Marisol at November 9, 2007 8:14 PM
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Islam divides the world in two groups. Infidels vs. believers.
Then it divides believers into two groups. Men vs. women.
Guess who comes out on top?
This behavior in Egypt should shock, but not surprise us.
Posted by: tanstaafl![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 9, 2007 8:57 PM
Cherry-picking this one hadith is most unfair! If you but scroll down a bit you'll find a much kindlier one.
Posted by: Papa Whiskey at November 9, 2007 9:04 PM
Bum link in the foregoing. Try
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/062.sbt.html#007.062.132
instead.
Posted by: Papa Whiskey at November 9, 2007 9:05 PM
Islam is a religion of harassment of all of humanity.
Posted by: Wimbledon Womble at November 9, 2007 10:03 PM
“When (a woman) walks out into the street in tight trousers and tight belts, she deserves what she gets,” said Mohamed Al Sayyed, 32, who works as an assistant at an upmarket hairdresser in Cairo.
--from the article--
Typical. Conservative male Islamists looking down on, what they deem, provacative behavior by women.
These moral "summit riders" conclude that an appropriate resonse, even though it is strictly against Sharia, is obviously rape.
This disgraceful "boy's club", known as Islam, really needs a makeover, specifically in the form of abolition.
Posted by: awake at November 9, 2007 11:39 PM
A lot of the pathology of Islam is related to sexual insecurity of men and the Darwinian concern of passing on one's own genes. Since the men are so afraid that their wives will cheat on them and possibly carry other men's children and not their own, they demand that women be hijabed, niqabed or burkad (depending on whether they are liberal, moderate or conservative Muslims, respectively - only kind of joking here).
Paternity is such an obsession with the sexually insecure Muslim men that they try to eradicate femininity, keeping women as covered cattle for use in reproduction only. And we all know what happens with prohibition.
A small number of men who can afford to have multiple wives in Muslim countries may love the system they live in. But most men in Muslim societies have limited romantic exposure to women and often they are forced into arranged marriages or they find a wife under social pressure. So pre-marriage, they are sexually frustrated and often post-marriage they are the same. Covering and segregating women leads to more - not less - sexual frustration and obsession among males.
So the high level of pornographic website access from Muslim countries is thus no surprise. Another unsurprising outcome is sexual harassment. And willingness to die in jihad operations is probably lined to sexual frustration as well. Sexually frustrated young men are more likely to feel they have nothing to lose and are more likely to engage in sexual fantasies, including martyr fantasies where they will get 72 virgins once they blow themselves up.
Posted by: Wimbledon Womble at November 10, 2007 1:05 AM
When (a woman) walks out into the street in tight trousers and tight belts, she deserves what she gets,” said Mohamed Al Sayyed, 32, who works as an assistant at an upmarket hairdresser in Cairo.
this guy should be taken out and unmanned my wife wears unisex clothing and I see nothing wrong with it as I am the only one who sees her nude and if the Muslim like this creep touches her he /ll be looking down the barrel of a 45 colt three seconds before he becomes a unick
at November 10, 2007 2:50 AM
" "When (a woman) walks out into the street in tight trousers and tight belts, she deserves what she gets,” said Mohamed Al Sayyed, 32, who works as an assistant at an upmarket hairdresser in Cairo.
“The women who come here are different from the ones in my village,” he said.
('sfunny how everyone picked up on this guy)
Perhaps that's why he left his village? Oh wait, he's an assistant hairdresser...nevermind. :)
Posted by: DaninVan at November 10, 2007 4:13 AM
It's not on the rise--it's an EPIDEMIC in Egypt already. This was one of the truly shocking and eye-opening things I saw when I was there. The one thing the article gets wrong is that unveiled, Western-dressed women get harassed more. In truth, it didn't matter if the women were western or fully veiled--if someone had a vagina, they were harassed, simple as that. The way the men STARED at the women is something that's permanently burned into my mind now. It was like they were trying to rape them with their eyes.
Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at November 10, 2007 6:35 AM
Papa Whisky:''Cherry-picking this one hadith is most unfair! If you but scroll down a bit you'll find a much kindlier one.''
Or upwards....
Volume 7, Book 62, Number 132:
Narrated 'Abdullah bin Zam'a:
The Prophet said, "None of you should flog his wife as he flogs a slave and then have sexual intercourse with her in the last part of the day."
Remind me not to flog the missus before I have my wicked way when we're all converted to Islam. OMFDB!
at November 10, 2007 7:12 AM
Women should challenge this in court. Except of course, that under sharia, her testimony is worth half that of a man.
Oh well, back to the drawung board.
Posted by: Celsius at November 10, 2007 7:18 AM
Words cannot express the utter contempt and loathing I feel for muslim men. They are neanderthals.
Posted by: ImNoDhimmi at November 10, 2007 8:11 AM
ImNoDhimmi
Words cannot express the utter contempt and loathing I feel for muslim men.
5-old girl raped by family friend
By RASHITHA A. HAMID
PETALING JAYA: A five-year-old girl was raped several times by a family friend who was renting a room in their flat.
The girl is believed to have been raped five times by the foreigner since Oct 13 at the Intan Baiduri flat.
The parents found out about the rape when a cleaner, sweeping at the 10th floor of the flat, spotted the suspect raping the girl and alerted the parents when they returned home from work.
http://illustratedpig.blogspot.com/2007/11/cut-their-balls-off.html
Posted by: shiva at November 10, 2007 9:58 AM
shiva -
Sometimes the articles on your excellent site are hard to read, and the images terrible to view. They are a constant reminder of what we must fight, and what awaits us if we do not.
at November 10, 2007 10:09 AM
I believe another aspect of this is the use of rape in war.
I wish I could remember the name of the book I read about this topic (it was so long ago).
I'm pretty sure it said that rape is not only a weapon against women but also against their menfolk. It shows the dominance of the aggressor, humiliates the women and their men, etc.
All of the men doing these things may not see it that way but I think the imams might. Islam does see itself as being at war with the rest of the world.
Posted by: Josephine at November 10, 2007 10:22 AM
Can you imagine how different and better the world would have been if Mohammed had been a decent person rather than the piece of hate-filled crap that he was?
Posted by: Seymour Paine at November 10, 2007 10:45 AM
Unfortunately, only a "hate-filled piece of crap" could've unified the Arabs back then. That's the biggest tragedy of it all. Islam succeeded PRECISELY because its founder was a violent pedophile. It could not do otherwise.
Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at November 10, 2007 12:34 PM
I will say, though, in defense of some egyptians, that when I was there, some of the independent/opposition papers were discussing this issue quite freely and without ignoring the role of Islam in its severity.
That said, what really got to me was how, anytime I'd bring up the issue, Egyptian men would condemn it in the harshest possible terms and talk about how, if they ever saw a woman being harassed, they'd immediately go to her aid. The number of times I saw a man help a woman who was being harassed? Zero.
Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at November 10, 2007 12:36 PM
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