CAIRO: On the second day of Eid al-Adha, there were 112 reported cases of verbal harassment, and 24 cases of physical sexual harassment, watchdog group I Saw Harassment reported Saturday morning.
The group, which announced before the holiday it would deploy volunteers to the streets to protect women from sexual harassment. The organization reported 78 cases of verbal harassment, and 9 physical cases from the first day, despite police announcements that there would be more officers patrolling the streets to prevent harassment.
I Saw Harassment has 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 has 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.
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.