Concerns at rise in sexual assaults in Tahrir Square

Story published in Women's Views on News, June 8, 2012

Egyptian activists are worried about increasing reports of attacks on women in Tahrir Square over the past week, following the sentencing of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

A young woman was reported to have been dragged into a side-street by around 200 men and assaulted.

A woman journalist who tried to help her had to be driven from the square at speed after she also came under attack.

Women have lost political ground over the last 16 months, despite playing a leading role in the ousting of Mubarak in February 2011.

Only 12 of the 498 seats in the Egyptian parliament were won by women in parliamentary elections earlier this year – a paltry 2.4 per cent, well below the global average of 19 per cent.

Nearly half of the seats were won by the Freedom and Justice party of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of whom recently denounced the ban on genital cutting in Egypt in 2008.

Their spokeswoman Manal Abul Hassan was quoted as saying that there is “no problem whatsoever” in having only a handful of women in parliament.

“Social justice will be delivered anyway,” she said, adding that it is up to “fathers, brothers and husbands to march and protest on behalf” of women.

Little wonder that some  Egyptian women are now wondering if they weren’t better off under Mubarak, who espoused western values and whose wife campaigned for quotas for women in elections and the right of wives to sue for divorce.

Now the Egyptian Parliament is talking about reducing the age when a girl can marry from 18 to 14, and awarding divorced men custody of children over eight.

But a group of activists met on Wednesday to try and stop the attacks in Tahrir Square.


“Enough is enough,” said Abdel-Fatah Mahmoud, a 22-year-old engineering student, who is organising patrols of the square to stop attacks on women.


“It has gone overboard. No matter what is behind this, it is unacceptable. It shouldn’t be happening on our streets let alone Tahrir.”

Activists believe that the attacks are being carried out by opponents of the protests, who want to deter people from attending.


“I think it is getting worse because people don’t want to acknowledge it is happening or do something to reduce it,” said Seif. “It is our job to put an end to it, at least in Tahrir.”