Sexual harassment was a much heated issued during the Islamic holidays of Lesser Bairam, Greater Bairam and Sham el-Nessim in Egypt this year.

Authorities heightened their media anti-sexual harassment campaigns and anti-harassment zones were set up in specific locations in downtown Cairo.

For the past two years, authorities have tried to prove that these measures have been a success—’Policewomen facing Harassment in Lesser Bairam,’ which was weak last year had renewed, heightened media coverage this year.

Sexual harassment was a much heated issued during the Islamic holidays of Lesser Bairam, Greater Bairam and Sham el-Nessim in Egypt this year.

Authorities heightened their media anti-sexual harassment campaigns and anti-harassment zones were set up in specific locations in downtown Cairo.

For the past two years, authorities have tried to prove that these measures have been a success—’Policewomen facing Harassment in Lesser Bairam,’ which was weak last year had renewed, heightened media coverage this year.

Authorities know that they are bluffing; the number of policewomen does not exceed a few hundred. Furthermore, they are not properly trained to face social situations in streets. Their existence, which started four decades ago, is merely honorary and as prestige for the image of Egypt. From the outset, it was clear that they were tens of decades behind their counterparts in other countries.

The authorities however are not ashamed of falsifying images and marketing them. Ironically, however, images alone are sufficient evidence of the structural deficit.

Last year, after appearing in many videos performing her duties as a policewoman in fighting sexual harassment during Lesser Bairam in downtown Cairo, Colonel Nashwa Mahmoud was a guest on the Mona Shazly Talk show. Mahmoud was wearing her uniform and full makeup and jewelry. The first thing she did was show the audience how to use defensive tools like sticks and electric shockers. The show projected videos of Mahmoud walking alongside a group of policemen and policewomen in the middle of the street, disrupting traffic.

Another video showed her separating men and women screaming: “Mixing is forbidden! Men should go this way and their wives that way.” A third video showed Mahmoud beating young men with sticks and dispersing crowds.

This year, video clips of Mahmoud were harsher and more violent than last year’s. Authorities launched another campaign: ‘Policewomen in Marina for the first time.’ In Marina, one of the most famous beaches of the rich, policewomen distribute sweets to vacationers and in the background, a number of soldiers – drafted for three years and deployed to the Ministry of Interior (MoI) to meet its needs – appear with expressions of crush, alienation and deprivation.

Curtailing civilian initiatives

Civil society organizations (CSOs) and civil initiatives played an active role in addressing sexual harassment during feasts between 2012-2015. This year, however, they were banned by the government from going into the streets during Lesser Bairam. In a media statement, coordinator of the ‘I Saw Harassment’ initiative, Hala Mustafa said the initiative made a formal request to the MoI to coordinate with them to monitor harassment cases, but the MoI never replied.

Intisar Sa’eed, a lawyer at the Cairo Center for Development and Human Rights, said anti-sexual harassment initiatives are suffering because of security restrictions.

Even the National Council for Women (NCW) – a semi-government body – only made remarks on the issue and accompanied the Anti-Violence against Women Forces in a field visit in front of some theatres. “There have been no calls about sexual harassment to relevant hotlines,” said NCW operation rooms.

Cinema and discipline

CSO reports have observed that movie theatres are the most attractive places for harassment and that the majority of incidents occur in front of or on the way to cinemas. Some blame the low quality movies shown in cinemas. With the increased number of female police officers last year, there were calls to increase the security presence in front of cinemas.

It seems that different circumstances have combined to show that the security presence is actually active at cinemas. ‘Security and Political Stability Revives Cinema Revenues’ was frequently seen in many news report and some were based on critic Samir Fareed’s article ‘2016 is the Happiest Year for Egyptian Cinema since the 2000s.’

Cinema, harassment and female cops meet in Abu Shanab’s movie, in which the protagonist Ismat Abu Shanab is sexually harassed so she decides to work as a policewoman in front of cinemas, to fight sexual harassment during the holiday season.

No government on the coast

After a week of media hype to promote policewomen in downtown Cairo, author Gamil Matar published an article in Shorouk newspaper entitled ‘Harassment or Ungainliness’ in which he narrated an incident he witnessed ot the coast where two women were harassed by two men. He says harassment is transcends social class but in the upper classes it is subtle and ends with sweet and polite justifications and apologies.

Throughout his story, Matar reaches several conclusions, thanks to his protagonist, a security man who succeeded in ending the harassment case and turned it into merely ungainliness and where parties agreed to end the case amicably with gentle apologies.

“The summer season does not pass without harassment,” says the security man. “Summer can be annoying, boring and silly if we do not allow for some forms of innocent flirtation. According to my experience, all people harass but not necessarily sexually. Security and other services here and along the coast are in the hands of Bedouin tribes. It is a contractual clause. The power of the government ends at the outer borders of the village and it may have ended at the border of Wadi El-Natrun. Our job is to act like men of security but we do not actually practice it. Can you imagine what would happen to these two men and women if they fell into the hands of real security forces, i.e. the Bedouins who would subject them to custom laws?”

“I decided to stay two extra days in the village to look more for the state which I found no evidence of,” says Matar. “I asked around in neighboring villages, but no one knew anything about it. I asked friends in far villages and got the same answer. Part of the state is on the main roads by demand or accident. Finally, I believed that in some situations and services, there is only a semi-state.”