Study on ways and methods to eliminate sexual harassment in Egypt
A country study of sexual harassment in Egypt: how it is experienced, what sustains it, and what legal and practical measures were proposed to reduce it.
What the study examines
The study looks at sexual harassment as a social phenomenon rather than as a series of individual incidents. It considers where harassment happens, who it happens to, how it is understood by those who experience it and by those who witness it, and what the legal framework at the time did and did not provide.
Its central finding concerns the gap between what people experience and what they are willing to name. Behaviour that would be recognised as harassment when described in the abstract was frequently not described that way when it happened, because the behaviour was normalised, because the person expected not to be believed, or because naming it carried a cost. That gap is the reason reporting rates in the study bear no relation to the incidence the study documents.
What sustains it
- Normalisation. Behaviour treated as ordinary by everyone around it is not experienced as something to report, however it would be classified by a policy.
- The cost of speaking. Where a person who reports is believed to lose standing, employment or the support of their family, the decision not to report is rational.
- Weak or unused legal routes. A legal provision that is rarely applied provides no deterrent and no remedy.
- Bystander silence. The study gives considerable weight to the role of those who witness harassment and do nothing, since their silence confirms that the behaviour is acceptable.
- Public space. Harassment in the street, on transport and in public institutions constrains where women can go and what they can do, which is a restriction on movement rather than a series of isolated events.
What was proposed
The proposals fall into four groups. Legal reform, including a clear definition, a route to a remedy, and enforcement that does not depend on the victim pursuing a prosecution alone. Institutional measures, so that workplaces, schools, universities and public transport operators have a policy and a procedure. Awareness work aimed at changing what is treated as normal, including work directed at men and boys and at bystanders rather than only at potential victims. And support services for those who have been harassed, since a route that leads to no help is not a route.
Why it belongs in this collection
Agencies operating in Egypt employ national and international staff who live and move in the same environment the study describes. The findings bear directly on three things an organisation has to plan for: the exposure of staff in public space and on public transport, the likelihood that an incident will not be reported unless the organisation has actively made reporting safe, and the need for a response that does not depend on the survivor choosing to pursue a legal remedy that is difficult to obtain.
Related
Practical guidance and research on the security of humanitarian staff, for the organisations that send them.