Women's health challenges in post-revolutionary Egypt

摘要

When Waleed Hammad, an Egyptian television reporter, wore women's clothes including a head scarf as he covertly filmed the reactions of men as he walked down Cairo's streets, he was taken for a prostitute and offered US$575 for a night. Many men subsequently interviewed by the television programme, Awel el Kheit or The Thread that was viewed by thousands online, blamed women, no matter what they wore, for inviting sexual harassment. Lena el-Ghadban, senior reporter on the show, which aired on the private station ONTV in early May, said they wanted to show through the eyes of men how all Egyptian women lived daily with the fear of being sexually harassed or abused. "We want them to try to feel how women feel about sexual harassment", she explains. "If the man sees himself as the victim of sexual harassment, maybe this could get him to think, 'What am I doing?'" More than 99% of hundreds of women surveyed in Egypt reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment, ranging from minor harassment to rape, said a recent UN report.