CAIRO: Volunteers will take to the streets during Eid al-Adha to protect women from harassment, grassroots initiative “I Saw Harassment” announced Monday.
The initiative’s volunteers will be on streets on Sept. 24-26 from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., especially in the downtown area of Cairo, to prevent sexual harassment and violence against women, said the statement.
“I Saw Harassment’ called on the Cabinet to merge women’s rights cases in its coming plans for a “real application for the equality between both genders.
It also called on the electoral candidates to add to their campaigns a clear vision related to resistance of violence against women, especially the sexual violence, so as to be put among the priorities of the legislative motions of the new parliament.
The initiative requested “exceptional measures” from the Ministry of Interior to secure women and girls in Egypt’s streets.
A report released by the United Nations in June 2013 calculated that 99.3 percent of Egyptian women have been sexually harassed, either verbally or physically.
The punishment for sexual harassers was toughened under amendments adopted by former interim President Adly Mansour, and assaulters now face up to five years in prison.
Two defendants were sentenced in August 2014 to life in prison over charges of mob sexual assault and attempted murder in Tahrir Square that occurred in early June, while another was sentenced to 20 years in prison.