Sexual Harassment Common in Egypt--UPDATED

While our brilliant president was praising Egypt for its "peaceful" rioting in the streets of Cairo, an American journalist was gang-raped and beaten by some of these "peaceful" protestors who happened to yell "Jew! Jew!" to the poor Gentile woman. What a horrific ordeal this poor woman was forced to endure. I hope our leftist female journalists have the good sense to not put themselves in such dangerous positions in the future.

Sad to say, this type of behavior in Egypt is not uncommon. Women in Muslim nations are treated as possessions and are given no respect.

An Egyptian blogger, known as the Sandmonkey, discusses the problem of sexual harassment/rape in Egypt, via Israel Matzav:

Sexual assault of CBS reporter in Egypt: Horrifying but not surprising

[...]

"While Logan's assault is horrifying, it's not surprising. The Arabs in general - and the Egyptians in particular - are known for this sort of thing. This is from a 2006 post by the Sandmonkey - one of the first things I ever read on his blog.


'The story is as follows for the those of you who didn't hear about it: It was the first day of Eid, and a new film was opening downtown. Mobs of males gatherd trying to get in, but when the show was sold out, they decided they will destroy the box office. After accomplishing that, they went on what can only be described as a sexual frenxy: They ran around grabbing any and every girl in sight, whether a niqabi, a Hijabi or uncoverd. Whether egyptian or foreigner. Even pregnant ones. They grabbed them, molested them, tried to rip their cloths off and rape them, all in front of the police, who didn't do shit. The good people of downtown tried their best to protect the girls. Shop owners would let the girls in and lock the doors, while the mobs tried to break in. Taxi drivers put the girls in the cars while the mobs were trying to break the glass and grab the girls out. It was a disgusting pandamonium of sexual assaults that lasted for 5 houres from 7:30 PM to 12:30 am, and it truns my stomach just to think about it.

I called my father when I heard of that happening, and he informed me that he didn't hear of it at all. They watched Al Jazeerah, CNN, flipped through opposition newspapers, and nothing. Nada. Nobody mentioned it. As if it didn't happen.

But it did.

...

Now, the egyptian blogsphere has been abuzz in debate over the incident. Some are writing posts on why it happend, possible causes, what it means, the social and political factors that could possibly lead to this behavior, and quite honestly, I can't be botherd. I don't care why it happend. Rape is not up for debate. I just care that it happend. What we should discuss right now isn't what caused it, but what kind of horrible punishment that should be enacted on any egyptian male who thinks that it is well into his right to sexually harass a female on the street. That's it. Pure and simple.

I am often told that I am too westernized or too liberal by people I know, and they are not wrong or inaccurate. My values are for the most part western values. However, there are two middle-eastern traits in me that I can never give up: The first is my stupid insistince on always paying for the bill when I am with a girl I am dating, and the second is my protectiveness of women. I have no tolerance for those who assault women sexually in any way, and that almost got me kicked out of my school in Boston when I broke the leg of one of my roommates who raped a friend of mine. The incident only resulted in him getting a broken leg because people stoped me before I killed him. And I had the full intention of killing him. Rapists do not deserve to live. And that's how I feel towards every single one of those pieces of shit that attacked women on the streets of cairo the other day.

People can debate solutions based on dialogue, education, or whatever and that's their right. My solution is far simpler: Any egyptian man whose mother raised him right should beat the living crap of any man he sees on the street that assaults or harasses a female. Think of them as your sisters, and act accordingly. The Police isn't interested in protecting the women, and that's fine, but that means that we should take this job as our own. Those who insist on acting like animals will be treated as such, and deserve no sympathy or mercy from us. I assure you, if we did this, if we undertook this as part of our national duty, there will no longer be a problem on our streets.

That is all!'


Let's go to the videotape. This one is from 2008.



The second reason I wasn't surprised by the assault was when I saw the picture of Logan at the top of this post. Several years ago, the wife of a friend confided in me that she had been raped before they were married. She was assaulted by an Arab man right here in Jerusalem, and she told me that she attributed the assault that she was blond and that she was wearing her hair loose. She said that blonds have to be particularly careful around Arab men, and she advised wearing their hair tight and in a bun."


That last comment reminds me of my days living in the Middle East as a pre-teen in the late 60s. I attended boarding school in Beirut and was shopping with a friend. After leaving the downtown area of the city to go back to our dorm, I was approached by an Arab man who came out of nowhere and grabbed me between the legs. I froze out of fear, and my friend swung her purse at him. Thankfully, he took off running. I was only 13 at the time. This was during the days when Beirut was friendly toward Americans. But, I was blonde and that was a rarity in the Arab world. I had forgotten about that incident until reading this article.

More on Sexual harassment in Egypt from a western journalist who has lived there since 2003. Please read. It states that "83 percent of Egyptian women and 98 percent of foreign women had experienced harassment".


UPDATE: More details about Lara Logan's vicious gang rape