2012-12-12 Channel4: Egypt: Sex, Mobs and Revolution

[törö]

Unreported World examines the increase in sexual assaults and harassment in Egypt.

The programme reveals claims that young men are being paid to carry out horrendous mob attacks on women. It is claimed that this started under the Mubarak regime and it is suspected by some to still continue.

Women have been at the forefront of the Egyptian revolution but are now often fearful of taking part in the regular public demonstrations.

Sexual harassment is not a new problem in Egypt. In a 2010 United Nations survey, more than 80 per cent of women surveyed said they'd been sexually harassed.

But there are signs that the problem has got worse with the breakdown of public order since the revolution. Reports of mob sex attacks are on the increase.

Reporter Ramita Navai and director Dimitri Collingridge meet a young woman who has recently survived such an attack. Nihal was out at a protest in Tahrir Square with four other women. She managed to escape but her friend suffered an ordeal that is typical of these attacks.

She was stripped naked and dozens of men raped her with their hands. Nihal's friend sustained internal injuries and couldn't walk for a week. She has since fled Egypt. Nihal too was severely traumatised.

Nihal has become involved in Harassmap, an anti-sexual harassment movement that charts mob attacks and allows women to log sexual harassment. In the last two years the team has received more than 900 reports from women across the country.

Despite the publicity on the issue, the women themselves are worried about speaking about their personal experiences. It's a taboo subject and many of them are even afraid to tell their parents what they've suffered.

Even when women decide to go to the police, they say they rarely receive help. Twenty-one-year-old student Dina has been the victim of several assaults. She claims that on one occasion she managed to alert a nearby police officer, but that he refused to help, telling her the attack was her fault because she was wearing the wrong clothes.

The team witnesses the everyday harassment women face. As they film, a woman is chased by a group of teenagers. And as Navai and Dina walk down a busy main street, they are constantly verbally abused.

Many of the women Unreported World meets say that age, dress and looks have very little to do with becoming a target. In one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Cairo, Stable Anta, all the women are veiled and they suffer harassment similar to their more westernised counterparts downtown.

To understand the male mentality that might be behind the attacks, the team interviews three young men from a conservative neighbourhood on the outskirts of Cairo. They tell Navai that by dressing in a particular way, women are trying to get attention and their harassment is a form of punishment. They also say that men who cannot afford to get married turn to harassment to fulfil their desires.

But one of Egypt's most influential bloggers, Wael Abbas, says there's another reason behind the attacks. He claims that sexual harassment was used by the previous president Mubarak as a weapon against female protestors; some people Unreported World interview believe that the current authorities are continuing this policy.

In the south of Cairo, the team talks to men who claim that they have been paid since the days of Mubarak's regime to attack women activists, although they say they don't know who is paying them.

The current government says that it is not behind the violence perpetrated by the mobs on women and has set up an inquiry to look into sexual harassment and violence.

The reasons behind sexual harassment and assault in Egypt are complex but it's clear that society's attitude to women is at the heart of it and this has allowed political groups to use it as a tool of intimidation.

The revolution may not yet have changed much for women's rights, but there's a new generation that are fighting back.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-world/4od#3454542

[Outo olio]

Lainauksessa näyttäisi olevan sama teksti kahteen kertaan?

[Veikko]

Hyvää arabikevättä!

[mietinen]

Unreported World examines the increase in sexual assaults and harassment in Egypt.

To understand the male mentality that might be behind the attacks, the team interviews three young men from a conservative neighbourhood on the outskirts of Cairo. They tell Navai that by dressing in a particular way, women are trying to get attention and their harassment is a form of punishment. They also say that men who cannot afford to get married turn to harassment to fulfil their desires.

But one of Egypt's most influential bloggers, Wael Abbas, says there's another reason behind the attacks. He claims that sexual harassment was used by the previous president Mubarak as a weapon against female protestors; some people Unreported World interview believe that the current authorities are continuing this policy.
...
The reasons behind sexual harassment and assault in Egypt are complex but it's clear that society's attitude to women is at the heart of it and this has allowed political groups to use it as a tool of intimidation.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-world/4od#3454542

Gang rape - Causes of sexual violence, Wikipedia
...
Gang rape is often viewed by the men involved, and sometimes by others too, as legitimate, in that it is seen to discourage or punish perceived immoral behaviour among women, such as wearing short skirts or frequenting bars.

For this reason, it may not be equated by the perpetrators with the idea of a crime. In several areas in Papua New Guinea, women can be punished by public gang rape, often sanctioned by elders.[8]

The Socio-Cultural Context of Rape: A Cross-Cultural Study, Journal of Social Issues, 1981

This research departs from the familiar assumption that rape is an inherent tendency of male nature, and begins with the assumption that human sexual behavior, though based in a biological need, is an expression of cultural forces. The incidence, meaning, and function of rape in a cross-cultural sample of tribal societies are presented. Two general hypotheses guide the research: first, the incidence of rape varies cross-culturally; second, a high incidence of rape is embedded in a distinguishably different cultural configuration than a low incidence of rape. The data suggest that rape is part of a cultural configuration which includes interpersonal violence, male dominance, and sexual separation. Rape is interpreted as the sexual exprsssion of these forces in societies where the harmony between men and their environment has been severely disrupted.

[tarhuri]

Yllätys, yllätys

[wannabe]

Lyhyt raportti tilanteesta paikan paalta, laitan nyt vaikka tahan ketjuun. Kirjoitettu 6.12. (tai paivaa, paria aiemmin)

Ayman Samir
Dear friends,
I'm writing this because of the bizarre western media blackout on the devastating events unfolding in Egypt today. Egyptians are fighting for their civil liberties against a totalitarian regime headed by an inept leader with a fanatical following heavily steeped in fundamentalist Islam.
What Egyptians are witnessing today is NOT an image of Islam. Actually, Islam has nothing to do with what the those Muslim Brotherhood extremists are doing in front of the presidential palace. Islam comes from Arabic roots meaning "peace". Do not take their ignorance and misbehavior as a portrayal of Islam. Those people neither represent religion nor represent my home country.
After president Morsi the Omnipotent declared himself a law unto himself and approved a hastily constructed draft constitution that threatens to tear all progress into modernity asunder, the Egyptian people, as expected, peacefully took to the streets in protest. Today they are being targeted in violent assaults while the international community watches on in eerie silence.
A reported 25 million people took to the streets yesterday, but there was no media coverage of it. Today they are being brutally attacked by Muslim Brotherhood thugs. As of this morning, there are 14 confirmed fatalities and over 900 injuries. The fight continues, and will continue.

[törö]

Tuolla on kommenteissa hyvää matskua. Uutinen itse on kai joku uutistoimistolta ostettu kökkö.

http://world.time.com/2012/11/26/egypt-thousands-protest-president-morsys-decree/