Old problems receive new attention in Egypt’s media
Sexual harassment is a severe and deep-rooted problem in the Egyptian society, but until recently the issue only received scant attention from the country’s mainstream media
By: Nina Grønlykke Mollerup, PhD fellow at IMS
A severe sexual assault on a group of women during the Muslim holiday Eid El-Fitr in 2006 was initially ignored by the mainstream media. At first, the assault only received attention on blogs, but once it was mentioned on a talk show on a private satellite channel, other media outlets were forced to cover the story as well.
On 25 January 2013 during demonstrations marking the second anniversary of Egypt’s Arab Spring revolution, at least 19 women were sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square. The attacks were severe. Six women were hospitalised, one of them after being raped with a knife.
Activists strengthen media ties to boost coverage
Unlike in 2006, the assaults in 2013 received immediate media attention. This was not solely a result of the severity of the attacks, but also due to the increasing organisation among activists and their strengthened networks with journalists.
In November 2012, a group of activists got together with NGOs and others to form the initiative Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment (OpAntiSH), which works to protect women from attacks in Tahrir Square and raise awareness about the issue.
“Our goal is to stop these attacks from happening and keep Tahrir Square a safe place for everyone,” says Salma Said from OpAntiSH. “We work to get the girls out of danger and into safety. Our methods include a safety group, a media group, an awareness group, an intervention team, and an operation room.”
OpAntiSH played a role in getting the stories of victims of the assaults in January 2013 out to the mainstream media, says Lobna Darwish from OpAntiSH.
“The most important thing was the decision of these women to speak out. Some stood up publicly with their names and faces, which is extremely brave and very hard to do, because many people blame the victims of sexual assault rather than the attacker, Lobna Darwish says.
“We help those who are willing to have their testimony published, by publishing it through social media and by connecting them with journalists.”
Respectful coverage
Recognising that some journalists may be inexperienced in covering these issues, particularly when it comes to showing concern and respect for the victims, Nazra for Feminist Studies, a local NGO involved in OpAntiSH, runs workshops for journalists to help them deal with such stories with sensitivity.
Nazra for Feminist Studies stresses “the need to conduct a serious, honest discussion of what women face in the public sphere, and what can be done to prevent these horrendous crimes,” on its website. ”This discussion must respect the privacy of those assaulted, focusing instead on the identity of the perpetrators, their objectives, and everyone’s responsibility to confront these horrific crimes.”
OpAntiSH is able to provide journalists with information and documentation about assaults because they are present on the ground, helping out the victims.
The people involved with OpAntiSH are also involved in several other activist initiatives, many of which began after Egypt’s revolutionary milestone date, 25 January 2011. Many of them organically organised and driven by volunteers, they actively seek to bring about social and political change in their country, and assist in creating networks and trust between activists and journalists.
These networks have been nourished by social media, where connections have greatly increased over the past few years, letting activists reach large numbers of people – including journalists.
Lobna Darwish also finds the mainstream media coverage of sexual assault and journalists handling of the issue problematic:
“Almost all the journalists were asking for personal information about the girls, just to make the story “sexy”,” she says, elaborating that OpAntiSH had to protect the victims from obtrusive journalists. The way the issues are framed in mainstream media are also problematic:
“The media don’t want us to speak about a complete society that attacks women every day. They don’t want to talk about how the whole system is part of this, they were just using the issue to critique the Muslim Brotherhood.”
About the author: A PhD fellow at IMS and Roskilde University, Nina Grønlykke Mollerup is a social anthropologist with an interest in media, social change and the Middle East. Nina’s PhD project is about activism and journalism in Egypt.
