CAIRO: Cairo University has dismissed a professor for allegedly sexually assaulting a female student outside the university campus, Youm7 reported Sunday.
Professor of Specific Education Osama Abahour has lured a pre-master student outside the campus and sexually assaulted her.
Cairo University referred Abahour to investigations and suspended him from work; he was then referred to the university’s disciplinary council that decided to dismiss him and report the prosecution with the incident, Youm7 quoted a Sunday statement by the university.
A similar incident took place in December 2014 when a political science professor was referred to investigations over accusations of sexually harassing female students at Cairo University.
He was banned from putting exams or giving grades to students until the end of the investigations. The decision to suspend him from work was based on a document submitted by the dean of the faculty, Hala el-Saeed, as well as on students’ complaints.
At least four faculty members were suspended and referred to investigations over accusations of sexual harassment during the last year, Cairo University president Gaber Nassar told Al-Bawaba News website in a December 2014 interview.
Numerous anti-sexual harassment campaigns have been launched at universities to raise awareness against the phenomenon and combat its existence inside university campuses.
In March 2014, a young woman was subjected to mob harassment by dozens of students inside Cairo University campus; the remarks of the university president Nassar were harshly criticized after he blamed her attire as revealing “unwonted” clothes.
A 2013 UN study indicated that 99.3 percent of Egyptian women have been sexually harassed.
According to a 2008 study by the Egyptian Center for Women Rights (ECWR), 69 percent of sexual harassment incidents occur on the street and 29 percent in educational institutions.
Additional reporting by Wael Rabeiy and Hany Mohamed.