Originally published on the CGS blog on July 15, 2013.
The recent protests in Egypt have been dominating international headlines and many Egyptians are looking towards the future with optimistic anticipation. Egyptians’ happiness about the future, however, has been clouded over by violent sexual attacks on Egyptian women.
While many celebrated the ousting of former President Morsi in the streets around Tahrir Square on July 4th, over 80 women were victims of harassment, rape, and mob sexual assaults. The most common scenario: a group of men pushed their way through the crowd, isolated a group of lone women, and proceeded to rip off their clothes. Sometimes the attacks stopped there, but other times they escalated.
Though incidents of sexual harassment are not unique in Egypt, these latest incidents are gaining international attention because they are more serious than typical acts of sexual harassment. According to Soraya Bahgat, co-founder of Tahrir Bodyguard, a volunteer rescue group, “Egypt is full of sexual harassment and people have become desensitized to it – but this is a step up. We’re talking about mob sexual assaults, from stripping women naked and dragging them on the floor – to rape.”
How did Egyptians respond to these attacks? Volunteer rescue groups, such as Tahrir Bodyguard and Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment, stepped up and patrolled Tahrir Square and its bordering streets. It was lucky that these rescue groups took action because the Egyptian police force did not. As Baghat observed, “there [was] an absolute absence of any security forces in Tahrir.”
Who do Egyptians blame for these attacks? Baghat finds that, “primarily, the blame is on the woman. People always ask: what was she wearing?” This blaming of women for acts of sexual harassment is an example of victim blaming. Victim blaming is “a social and psychological phenomenon wherein the fault in a crime (rape, robbery, assault) is attributed to the victim. The victim is regarded as partly or completely responsible (to blame) for the accident or trauma.” Victim blaming is not exclusive to Egypt; it is a global problem.
How can we go about solving this global issue? Dr. Jackson Katz, co-founder of the Mentors in Violence Prevention― an organization that provides gender violence prevention training, presents one idea on how to end victim blaming, as it pertains to violence against women, in this excellent TED talk.
Katz believes that we, as a global society, are not asking the right set of questions. To get a complete understanding of why incidents of sexual harassment occur, we need to shift our focus away from women. We have to start asking what’s going on with men, as a collective. Why do men do what they do? In addition to asking questions about men, we must examine the role of various institutions in our society and the connections that exist between these institutions. To what extent does the family structure promote abuse of women? What about the sports’ culture or religious institutions?
Katz rightly points out, “This isn’t about individual perpetrators. That’s a naïve way of understanding what’s a deeper and a much more systematic social problem.” To solve this global issue we, as a global society, must do two things. Individually, we have to reevaluate the way each of us views sexual harassment and honestly ask ourselves if we are guilty of victim blaming. Collectively, we must scrutinize the role our institutions play in victim blaming. A systematic social problem requires a systematic assessment.
