Attack Part of Troubling Pattern of Sexual Harassment
Contact: Suzanne Trimel, [email protected], 212-633-4150, @strimel
(New York) — Amnesty International today urged Egyptian authorities to immediately launch an investigation into reports of sexual harassment and assaults against women protesters during a demonstration in Cairo last week.
A group of activists calling for an end to sexual harassment of women protesters were reportedly groped and punched by a mob of men as they marched across Tahrir Square on Friday.
"There were hands groping us and stealing our belongings from our bags and pockets. It was chaos, we couldn't tell who was with us and who was against us," said Lobna Darwish, one of the organizers of the protest and a member of Mosireen ("Determined"), an Egyptian collective of filmmakers and citizen journalists.
The assault comes amid increasing reports of sexual harassment against women protesters in Egypt.
Activists told Amnesty International that a group of men tried to tear off the women protesters' clothes and steal their belongings. Both women and men supporters fought back but the attackers persisted.
The protest had started peacefully but became violent after several women were attacked, in spite of a circle that the men had formed around them to try and shield them.
"These women stood up to demand an end to sexual harassment," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa. "What they got was intimidation and sexual assault. In last year's protests, Tahrir Square was a place where women stood on an equal footing with men to demand their freedom. Now it has become a place where women are singled out for sexual harassment."
Male supporters told Amnesty International they were also groped as they tried to help the women and they felt hands reaching into their pockets to steal their belongings during the scuffles.
The women were eventually able to run to safety or find refuge in nearby buildings until the situation stabilized.
The attack on the women protesters comes after reports of harassment and assault by large groups of men earlier in the week.
Nihal Saad Zaghloul told Amnesty International that she and three friends were attacked by a large group of men on June 2 in Tahrir Square as they joined a protest after the verdict in Hosni Mubarak's trial. She was pushed and groped and her headscarf pulled off before she was rescued by some men in the square.
Her two female friends were also attacked and groped by the men who also tried to tear their clothes off while a male friend was badly beaten as he tried to help them.
Women in Egypt have increasingly become the target of attacks from mobs of men from security forces, who have gone unpunished.
In December 2011, women protesters were beaten by soldiers who kicked them and dragged them through the streets. Armed forces took at least eight female protesters to a parliament building in central Cairo. They reportedly beat them with sticks and some were molested by soldiers or threatened with sexual assault.
Women who were arrested when armed forces forcibly dispersed a protest against military rule in May were reportedly beaten and sexually harassed.
Journalists have come under similar attacks. On February 11, 2011, CBS journalist Lara Logan was beaten and sexually assaulted by a mob of men in Tahrir Square. On November 24, 2011, France 3 reporter Caroline Sinz was assaulted in a street near Tahrir Square.
Using sexual harassment and assault against women protesters is a tactic that was frequently used under former president Hosni Mubarak.
In 2005, thugs were reportedly hired to attack women journalists taking part in a protest calling for the boycott of the referendum on constitutional reform.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.