Sexual harassment in Egypt : how the case is so different
March 8, 2015 at 11:35 pm
(This post was last modified: March 8, 2015 at 11:40 pm by WinterHold.)
Hello guys.
As I spent 4 years in Egypt, I always suffered from a deep feeling of weirdness when it comes to women..something is very wrong.
From attitudes to reactions, both genders display that behavior.
It was the first thing I noticed, is the dominating culture of "she deserves it ; she was wearing this or that", men would commit all types of harassments but they would throw it & blame it on the woman eventually.
Women would usually cover up the harassment no matter what the aftermath is ; to Egyptian society women are always wrong -it is real ; I saw it-, believe it or not even if you defend the girl, she will probably put blame on you too.
As a foreigner male, I suffered from abuse (being the outsider who came here to rob egypt out of its women ; the same racist culture that spread in nationalist states), but it doesn't compare to the native women, or any woman coming here. Western women are amongst the easy targets since most don't understand arabic. In Egypt (and all of the Arab world) white skin = beauty. A racist & self hating culture that spread in the Middle East after the British/French/Turkish occupations. The whiter a woman, the more easy for her to get harassed and probably raped.
I always thought this is not Islamic or due to Islam ; these are the native cultures of the region, displaying their true color after the economical situation turning to shit. Egyptians are as far away from Islam as anybody else, the following documentary literally shows you how the society is.
Sexual harassment is only ONE problem..the Middle East covers disasters that nobody know anything about. Arab culture -especially Egyptian culture- have a hypocritical feature of hiding the truth no matter what, if it ever carries a negative thing. Most Egyptians in the west would tell you that Egypt is god's heaven on earth, and that these harassments are minimal. Arab culture dictates for its followers to hide the truth, it's even a famous motto engraved in our cultures ; usually the old folks taught us :
داري على شمعتك تقيد.
Translated to : cover your candle, it shall ignite more.
Though wouldn't be an exception, that the candle started to burn me ???
As I spent 4 years in Egypt, I always suffered from a deep feeling of weirdness when it comes to women..something is very wrong.
From attitudes to reactions, both genders display that behavior.
It was the first thing I noticed, is the dominating culture of "she deserves it ; she was wearing this or that", men would commit all types of harassments but they would throw it & blame it on the woman eventually.
Women would usually cover up the harassment no matter what the aftermath is ; to Egyptian society women are always wrong -it is real ; I saw it-, believe it or not even if you defend the girl, she will probably put blame on you too.
As a foreigner male, I suffered from abuse (being the outsider who came here to rob egypt out of its women ; the same racist culture that spread in nationalist states), but it doesn't compare to the native women, or any woman coming here. Western women are amongst the easy targets since most don't understand arabic. In Egypt (and all of the Arab world) white skin = beauty. A racist & self hating culture that spread in the Middle East after the British/French/Turkish occupations. The whiter a woman, the more easy for her to get harassed and probably raped.
I always thought this is not Islamic or due to Islam ; these are the native cultures of the region, displaying their true color after the economical situation turning to shit. Egyptians are as far away from Islam as anybody else, the following documentary literally shows you how the society is.
Sexual harassment is only ONE problem..the Middle East covers disasters that nobody know anything about. Arab culture -especially Egyptian culture- have a hypocritical feature of hiding the truth no matter what, if it ever carries a negative thing. Most Egyptians in the west would tell you that Egypt is god's heaven on earth, and that these harassments are minimal. Arab culture dictates for its followers to hide the truth, it's even a famous motto engraved in our cultures ; usually the old folks taught us :
داري على شمعتك تقيد.
Translated to : cover your candle, it shall ignite more.
Though wouldn't be an exception, that the candle started to burn me ???
