We don't know where to begin, while on our S&H facebook profile we realized there was a little war going on about a note that a foreign girl living in Egypt had written about sexual harassment...We were appalled to see the reaction of some of Egypt's supposed "high society" respond in the most immature and derogatory manner...

There is one thing standing up for your country and being nationalistic, it is another thing to blindly defend the wrong...we will never succeed or improve if we keep trying to cover up our mistakes!

Egyptian women DO get sexually harassed on a daily basis, be it through lewd comments, getting gropped, or other means...just today while stuck in traffic one of the S&H members saw a car full of boys harass the girl in the car next to them, resulting in one of them getting out knocking on her window continuously, then throwing a phone number of some sort of paper onto her windshield...

For those of you who claim it has never happened to you you are either a) hideous or b) delirious to your surroundings!

We sat down the S&H girls and asked them if this is a matter of fact something that happens and they all agreed and began telling us different stories...for those of you who are blatantly standing up for the "7osala" (low lives) that are out there making it harder for Egyptian women and foreign women to go about their lives, just because an outsider chose to comment on the issue disgusts us ...

The Egyptian government is trying to combat this mind frame, why wouldn't you? The young lady who wrote this article is not a threat to your national security and may be exaggerting a tad...but be men and women and try and solve the situation rather than turn a blind eye...

Here is the excerpt of what was written:-

I've been reading a number of articles tonight since (once again) I was pushed against a wall this evening and asked "do you want to fuck?" This happened at 8pm near a hotel in a busy part of Cairo. I was wearing long loose trousers and a long-sleeved top. No make-up and hair scraped back. One of the most recent articles dealing with this topic can be found here:

http://gulfnews.com/news/region/egypt/open-assault-on-dignity-1.628475

The article points out: "In 2008, the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR) released shocking statistics that stated that 83 per cent of Egyptian women and 98 per cent of foreign women in Egypt reported exposure to sexual harassment. ...

we have conducted several studies that have proven one thing above all else: Sexual harassment occurs regardless of age, dress or time of day. Women are victims simply because they are women," said ECWR chairwoman Nehad Abu Al Komsan. ...

More than 60 per cent of the respondents — including females — suggested that scantily clad women were most at risk. But the study concluded that the majority of the victims of harassment were modestly dressed women wearing the hijab. Contrary to expectations, the male perpetrators made little distinction between women wearing a veil and those who were not. "We found that a veil does not protect women as we thought," says Abu Al Komsan. "More than 75 per cent of women in Egypt are veiled but are still harassed. 

Before long, I will get used to this daily harassment (I'm lucky if I can walk 5 minutes without hearing the word "fuck") and stop writing about it on facebook. But, right now, I'm angry and exhausted by it. Why is the harassment so pervasive and so aggressive here? It's a very bad side to Egyptian society.

What do the rest of you Cairo think? It is an issue that needs to be tackled that all women suffer from here, the mere fact that you can't go down with a tank top in this country and walk around any more, scares the girls here at S&H all there more!

Get it together Egypt especially the people who so surprisingly disappointed us in their rebuttals!