Activists are organizing a sit in at the Press Syndicate, 12 noon, on 9 November, to protest the sexual assaults against women during Eid. The activists are demanding the resignation of General Habib el-Adly, the Interior Minister whose security forces stood by watching the assaults without intervention.
i’ll be there with the clan for sure
Is it the same women stand we are talking about, or it is something else?
Same one… Please spread the word around, to try to get a good turn out.
Who’s organizing the protest? I hope the focus will be on crimes against women so that the real problem gets the attention it deserves, because if it’s just going to turn into an anti-regime protest it might not do the original cause much good.
If anyone is putting together slogans/posters, please do share ideas.
Actually it is not against the regime, it focuses on the crimes against women. That’s why I was asking if it is the same thing or not.
http://nermeenainarabic.blogspot.com/2006/11/blog-post.html
here is the detailed ad. Please note that this is a social stand for females, not an against regime protest.
There is no organization that has sponsored the demo yet to my knowledge. My mobile phone has been showered since the morning with SMSs announcing the demo and calling for the resignation of Adly.
And yes, it is against what happened from those mobs AND against the regime. The two parties are involved in the crime that happened, and the latter has a huge share of responsibility towards what happened.
Sure, the incidents of harrassment and the shocking absence of the police are can ultimately be tied to the regime, as can everything that happens in Egypt – Adly and his cops don’t give a damn about protecting people the way they do about protecting the regime’s power. But there’s a real risk of downplaying the problem of sexual harrassment and the responsibility of everyday Joe Cairene in it if it becomes all about Adly. You don’t fight sexual harrassment with a rant against leaders, you fight it with bringing it into the open and shaming those who do it.
it is under lagnet el 7oreyat @ the syndicate, and as for I know becoz i am the one who coordinated it with the committee this morning. It is a females silent stand. With social goals. Of course as you said the 2 parties as involved, but this one stand is meant to condemn and resent the act…
Bad timing. Why is it in mid-day on a working day!! What is it with organizers who don’t want a proper showup! Damn it.
in egypt i always hear how egyptians are perfect people, and it’s just regime who is bad. sooner or later it will be revealed, that it is almost whole society what is rotten. government use to be the reflection of the people in all its positives and negatives, whether it is elected freely or not.
i dont remember seeing such a sexual despair anywhere else in the world, as i see in egypt.
Nerro, I salute your efforts and initiative. I still do not see the problem to be seperated from the regime\’s policies.
The police is surely setting the model in the streets, with their sexual assaults against women activists and reporters.. and in police stations by sexually abusing detainees. Those animals who were involved in the molestation fiesta, knew also in advance that whatever they do, they\’ll get away with it, coz no one was gonna held accountable.
Manialovich, there\’s a consensus among the blog administrator and contributors that your comments spout nothing but racist filth, hate mixed with an overdoze of stupidity, including the comment you posted above. The only reason we leave them posted is to show how people can make mockery out of themselves sometimes.
Good for you all! I hope the demo goes well. It is vey heartening to see people taking action against crimes committed against women.
I hope the event gets some coverage!
Shame on you Egypt!!! I heard about this and I am Syrian.This is happening to your daughters by the hands of your sons and nothing happened till now!!!! SHAME ON YOU!!
Good on you guys for organising something to show people’s anger at what happened. But I have a feeling that if attention is focused on the regime, specially with reference to particular figures, it will make it easier for them to dismiss the whole thing as politically motivated. But then, surely, the regime is directly responsible for this by allowing it to happen and sanctifying molestation in the public domain by resorting to it themselves.
Also, I wanted to say something about the generally racist posts (on this blog and others) that are generated whenever the issue of harassement of women comes up.
It’s definitely something that’s getting worse in Egypt. But even so, to put it into context, many foreign women in Egypt say it is an annoyance rather than life threatening, as similar attacks often are in the states or western Europe.
At the same time, I really think that the foreign residents in Egypt who get really indignant about this sort of thing tend to forget what it is really like back home. I mean, yes, this is a negative aspect of life in Egypt, but it is similar to the negative aspect of life for many women in places like the north of England and inner city America. Are Arabs and Muslims animals with a weird religion that allows such displays of wanton barbarity? If they are, then what do you say about the 65 percent of Brits that binge drink, piss in drains in front of bars and snort vodka. Surely Arab men don’t have a monopoly on sexism, when British men make “humourous” grabs at women’s behinds, while complimenting them on their lack of clothes, only to order the same women to then cover up if they manage to engineer a relationship with them. (not to pick on britain, but just as an example)
However, it does make me laugh that most racist rants against Arabs and Egyptians result in an Egyptian extolling the “mother of civilisation” (check out ala’s blog).. really its time to stop clutching that overused chestnut as a get-out clause.
I wont pretend that im a clever academic who can put names to the various psychosies that might be to blame for this sort of behaviour, but i have noticed that it occurs much less in the “less developed” parts of the Arab world. A blonde female can walk around tripoli or khartoum and no one bats an eyelid.
I totally agree, and I don’t wanna say that the women stand could be categorized as an evasive maneuver because it is originally directed to resent the shameful act. However, I believe such a public stand is kinda a direct accusation for all the other concerned parties.
There is now a report on this on the BBC website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6106500.stm
So, im assuming over the next couple of days Gamal Mubarak’s friends at the state newspapers will say it is all part of a foreign (probably US) plot to malign the “mother of civilisation” just as the government was about to trounce Israel for stepping on the Palestinians once time too many.
I fear the protesters will then get cast as simpletons naively further US aims in Egypt (at best) or US stooges bent on damaging the country (at worst).
Poor Egypt, ya miskeen
Just saw the BBC report too. It quotes the interior ministry at the end as “downplaying” the incident and saying it had received no complaints, and asking people to report such things to the police in the future.