“I can no longer walk – or even drive – anywhere without receiving a dirty comment or without feeling scared that I may be attacked at any moment.” Those were the comments of one female university graduate on life as a woman in Egypt. “It’s disgusting and makes me feel like I am walking around naked!” said another female who happens to be veiled. “The abuse impacts all women of Cairo. Whether you are wearing the hijab, the niqab, or whether you are not veiled…women are harassed no matter what!” This is the sexual terrorism that women across Egypt go through each day. Statistics released reveal that more than 90% of Egypt’s women – regardless of the neighborhood they live in – have encountered sexual harassment: grand-mothers, mothers, daughters – no one is off limits. While driving in the relatively ‘upscale’ Heliopolis, I noticed a bunch of youth who had stopped their car and started verbally abusing a woman – in her 20s – who simply turned her face away and hurried quickly to a nearby store. The attitude towards women in society has deteriorated over the past few decades…
