فلنتوقف عن التحرش: إنه القهر وليس الجنس

وهل علينا العيد مرة أخرى وكالعادة لم يأتي بجديد. موجات من التحرش الجنسي انتشرت سواء في وسط البلد بالقاهرة أو خارج وسط البلد أو المحافظات التي قليلا ما نعرف ما يدور بها. الأمر كان مختلف قليلا هذه المرة حيث كان هناك بعض المبادرات التطوعية التي حاولت رصد الظاهرة والتصدي لها، وكانت التغطية الإعلامية أكثر تكثيفا حيث كان من الواضح أن كاميرات الصحافة مستعدة لالتقاط صور من قلب الحدث. والجديد ايضا أن رأينا نقاشات وكتابات تحاول لتحليل ظاهرة التحرش الجنسي أكثر من الماضي.

هل نجحت تلك التحليلات في استيعاب واقع التحرش الجنسي؟ معتقدش.

لازال العديد ممن يحاولوا فهم التحرش يحصروا أسباب الظاهرة في واحد من اثنين: أولهم هو ملابس المرأة ودرجة "احتشامها" و في أقوال أخرى وجود المرأة عموما في الشارع وثانيهم الكبت أو "الهيجان" الجنسي الذي يعاني منه الشباب.

في الحقيقة لا يختلف التفسيران عن بعضهما البعض كثيرا فهم أشبه بوجهان لعملة واحدة. يعتبر أصحاب هذه النظرية أن المرأة هي كيان جنسي مثير أشبه بمغناطيس أو وعاء جنسي متحرك وبما أن الشباب أصبح لا يملك أن يتزوج في سن مبكر فبالتالي يعاني من الكبت الجنسي ومشاهدة هذه الأوعية الجنسية (النساء) تتجول في الشارع سوف يستفزه والتالي لابد أن "يغرف" منها قدر ما استطاع لاشباع احتياجاته ورغباته.

لماذا يحدث التحرش الجنسي ولماذا انتشر بهذا الشكل؟ من المؤكد أن الشباب في بلدنا مكبوت ولكن أي نوع من الكبت؟ يحصل معظمنا على التعليم في منظومة تعليمية يخرج منها مشوه نفسيا وغير معد لمواجهة الحياة وتحدياتها ليقابل سوق عمل لا يرحم. من الممكن إعطاء الكثير من الاحصائيات عن معدل البطالة  ولكن الأرقام لن تعبر عن التجربة التي يمر بها الباحثين عن عمل كريم ودخل معقول بدون جدوى.  وفوق هذا كله من يسمع رأي الشباب أو يستثمر في طاقتهم وابداعاتهم؟ لا أحد. ما هي مدى مشاركة الشباب في أنشطة مجتمعية أو سياسية؟ 3% قبل الثورة. هل تغير هذا المعدل بعد الثورة؟ غالبا ولكن ليس بالقدر الكافي بعد. ماذا نتوقع بعد هذه الخلطة من التهميش والفشل؟ احباط وعنف وتطرف ديني. 

المشكلة ليست الكبت الجنسي ولا ملابس النساء. الحقيقة هي أن الرجال في مجتمعنا لا يشعرون برجولتهم. الحقيقة هي أن الرجال في بلدنا يشعرون بالقهر. المقموع يقمع من هو أضعف منه. واحنا عندنا من القمع كتير.. قرون من الاحتلال وعقود من الديكتاتورية العسكرية. الرجال يخرجون شحنتهم من الاحباط والضعف على من أضعف منهم: النساء غالبا!

العام الماضي كنت جزء من دراسة بحثية عن آراء الشباب في التحرش الجنسي. أكثر ما لفت انتباهي هو عمق المفاهيم المغلوطة لدى الشباب عن التحرش. بالرغم من رفض جزء كبير منهم لظاهرة التحرش ولكن هناك الكثير من يعتقد أن الفتاة هي السبب الأساسي في التحرش بل وغالبا ما يستمتعن به. الأخطر هو عدم تفهم هؤلاء الشباب بتأثير التحرش على النساء سواء على المدى القصير أو الطويل وهذا ينطبق على الكثير من الذكور للأسف.

 لا يقدر معظمنا احساس الضعف والخوف وقلة الحيلة الذي يولده التحرش سواء كان لفظيا أو بدنيا. لا يقدر معظمنا أن نظرة من شاب الى جسد المرأة تشعرها بأنها كيان بدون احساس فما بالك عندما تمتد أيديهم إلى أكثر مناطق الجسم خصوصية بغرض الإهانة وإثبات القوة وليس بغرض الإشباع الجنسي. لا تتعجبوا إذا دعت بعض النساء لاستخدام للعنف ضد المتحرشين فهي النتيجة الطبيعية لما يلاقوه في الشوارع. إذا كنت ترغب في فهم تجربة التحرش ربما الأفضل أن تسمع النساء أنفسهن مثل تدوينة شيرين ثابت بعنوان موقع اباحي أو تدوينة إيزيس خليل عن علاقتها بجسدها.

هل هناك من حل؟ بالطبع. أملنا في تحرر الشعب من قيوده وعودة الحرية والكرامة له (استعنا على الشقا بالله). لابد من اصلاح التعليم من ناحية المناهج أو أسلوب التعليم العقيم. لابد من أن تحتوي المادة الدراسية على مواد تعزز من ثقافة حقوق الانسان واحترام الآخر والمساواة بين الجنسين وأيضا التربية الجنسية. لابد ن مشاركة الشباب الحقيقية في كل ما يخصهم ويخص المجتمع ولا أقصد هنا المشاركة على غرار المجلس القومي للشباب.

يتحدث الكثير عن تشديد العقوبات والقوانين الرادعة، ولا أنكر تشككي من فعالية هذه المقترحات فلدينا العديد من القوانين التي لا تجد من ينفذها. كما يتحدث الكثير عن تشديد وجود قوات الشرطة بالشوارع، قد يكون هذا مقترح معقول ولكن ماذا عن رجال الشرطة الذين يتحرشوا بالنساء. وما الذي سوف يشجع النساء على اللجوء للشرطة للابلاغ مع معرفتنا جميعا بأزمة الثقة بين المواطن والشرطة؟ 

القانون معركة مهمة ولكن أهم منها هي العمل مع المجتمع نفسه. لا شك في أن القانون يعبر بشكل ما عن التزام الدولة نحو قضية ما ولكننا نعيش في وقت الشعب. المبادرات الشعبية (بعيدا عن الدولة) من أهم الطرق التي نخلق بها التغيير في مجتمعنا وبالفعل ظهر العديد منها على الساحة مؤخرا. 

أما الاقتراحات الأخرى على غرار تسهيل زواج الشباب أو تقصير فترة التعليم أو تغيير ملابس النساء فلا أعتقد أنها تحتاج إضاعة الوقت في مناقشتها.

قبل أن أختم التدوينة أحب أن ألقي الضوء على نقطتين:

الأولى: التحرش الجنسي ليس الشكل الوحيد للعنف ضد المرأة في مجتمعنا فهناك العنف المنزلي والختان والحرمان من الميراث والزواج المبكر والقسري وغيرها ولا تختلف أسباب كل هذه المشاكل عن أسباب التحرش التحرش وهذه القضايا لا تقل أهمية عن التحرش الجنسي ولا ينبغي علينا حصر مشاكل المرأة في مشاكلها في المساحات العامة فقط لأنها تتعرض لغيرها من الانتهاكات.

ثانيا: التحرش لا يعاني منه النساء في الشارع فقط. بل أصبحت للأسف ثقافة عامة. كل مستضعف او مختلف يتم التحرش به. الأجانب يتحرش بهم وسود البشرة سواء مصريين أو غير مصريين يلقون نصيبهم المستمر من التعليقات العنصرية. حتى من يرتدي أزياء "غير تقليدية" أو الشخص القصير أكثر من اللازم أو ذوي الإعاقة .. الخ ليس لديهم الحق في التواجد في الشارع بأمان. أول خطوات مواجهة المشكلة هو الاعتراف بها والتعامل الناضج معها. الأمان والسلامة الجسدية والنفسية حق للجميع بدون تمييز.

When Women Are Undressed!

In the post-revolutionary Egypt, several women were undressed, whether willfully or against their consent. A varying degree of uproar usually ensues. It’s really curious to witness the frenzy that happens when women clothes are dropped.

The West (with all the implications and connotations of this word) and Western media, obsessed as it with the oppressed Arab/Muslim women, is usually enthused to cover and report on what happens to women in the Arab world; demanding their liberation; lamenting their marginalization. While here, the obsession with female body overrides the debate, making it skewed, if not outright unfair.

The first such incident was the sexual assault on Lara Logan in Tahrir on the day of ousting Mubarak. International media were all over it. Logan went on 60 Minutes describing her ordeal. The media here largely ignored it; either too overwhelmed with Mubarak stepping down and the prospects for a new Egypt, or using the same excuse of “Let’s not tarnish the national image”.

In March, we had the infamous virginity tests that were conducted by the military.  There was definitely a case of shock when such news came out. Not as much hype as there is now because back then lots of people were still in denial about the fact that the military is against the revolution. They just didn’t believe our honored army would commit such a crime. Some others thought those girls had it coming. “Who told them to go protest and spend the night on the street anyway?!”

Later on in May, there was a fiasco of another sort. Religious frenzies, aka the Salafis, well known for their strict interpretation of Islam and limited worldview, were on the hunt for yet another woman named Abeer. A Christian woman, had fled her Upper Egyptian village and left her family behind for a fling with a Muslim man. She converted to Islam in order to be able to get a divorce and marry the Muslim. The Salafis presumed that Abeer was held in a church in Imbaba which resulted in an ugly flare of sectarian violence and led to about a dozen dead and hundreds injured. This incident exemplified how women become tools of asserting power by religious factions; and how controlling women’s sexuality and mobility can be a strong driver of sectarian violence.

Moreover, similar honor-motivated protests were organized by Salafis in order to save women alleged to have converted to Islam. Most of the protesting centered around a woman called Kamilia Shehata. These protests were named “I want my sister Kamilia”, a famous humorous phrase that is now commonly used to mock Salafis and their obsession with their alleged sisters.

The failure of Salafis & other Islamists to produce a proper response, when female protesters were subjected to abuses at the hand of police and military forces, were the center of criticism of many secular/liberal revolutionaries. Those revolutionaries who are struggling to present themselves to the mainstream non-political majority. The word secular has become so stigmatized that most activists chose not to use it. The word "liberal" became all too common to refer to anyone who's not an islamist. The outcry of the liberal/secular against the violence of female protesters was all too real, but the use of that card to trump the islamists was always interesting.

When Salafis chose not to put the photos of female parliamentary runners and decided to replace them with either flowers or their husbands' photos, they received harsh sarcasm from the "liberal" front, for their lack of respect for women. But how did that liberal front really deal with women issues? Did they really advocate for women inclusion everywhere? Women were also excluded in most liberal political forces.

In November, when Aliaa El Mahdy took her clothes off, took a nude photo and posted it on her blog, the international attention reached unbelievable levels. Her controversial act was the talk of everyone and again the media was all over it. Was it a feminist act of rebellion or a miscalculated risk? Regardless of its meaning or motivation, Aliaa's act became the battlefront of debate about women liberation; the limits of freedom; the timing; the reputation of the revolution; the rampant double standards and hypocrisy of the society that rushes to see her naked body yet condemn her act.

Again, the "liberal forces" were confused, if not dismayed, by Aliaa's nudity; either denying her freedom of expression or claiming it compromises the struggle of "liberal forces" to maintain their image. The buzz would have continued, and Aliaa's life would have been more endangered, if it wasn't for the violence that erupted again at Mohamed Mahmoud street and the first round of parliamentary elections. The international and national spheres found other things to worry about.

Most recently, the famous photos above made headlines in several international and local media outlets, and became the heart of another debate. The woman who was brutalized as a punishment for her bravery to protest in the cabinet events became a sensation, not because she was aggressively beaten up or insulted but because her body was exposed.

The angry reaction that immediately followed based the criticism of the military violence on the shame they have caused by exposing her body. It is quite understandable that this act of exposition is associated with shame and violating "honor" more than anything else. But I can't help but wonder, whose shame it is when a woman's body is exposed! Why has it become such a horrendous act? Because we see women's body as a sacred untouchable that should not be violated? What is more violating here, the shame brought about by her brutalization or that caused by her bodily exposition? Which is more shocking, the emotional wounds that she'll have to endure or the fact that world knew the color of her bra?

However, the women march today at Tahrir was a real positive move. Thousands of women from all walks of life, in all sorts of dress showed up in solidarity and to protest the flagrant military violations. The photo below is particularly striking and interesting. This woman is basically saying: "nobody has the right to judge us or question our honor". As the chants said "Egyptian women are a red line", women expressed that any violations of Egyptian women should never be tolerated. It shows that despite the shaming and the victim-blaming, women still reclaim their right to protest and express themselves.

"your eyes are cheap"

It is amazing how women's bodies have such a revealing effect. They can show exactly where people stand on matters like freedom, autonomy and shame. Women's bodies have been the battlefront of so many battles before and will continue to be, but the hypocrisy it reveals never ceases to be powerful.

Sexually Harassing Egypt's Revolution

Why is sexual harassment denialism so strong in Egypt? Is it not the right time to discuss it because we are having an unprecedented peaceful revolution? Or the patriarchy runs so deep to the point we ignore horrible incidents of mass sexual harassment?

During the revolution days, everyone was talking about how Tahrir Square was free from any sexual harassment. I wondered how anyone could really verify such a statement! We have rampant sexual harassment issues yes, but we still have the culture of silence and shame around it. How many girls and women would actually go and report sexual harassment?

During one of the famous 18 nights of Tahrir sit-in before toppling Mubarak, I was there with a friend of mine who told me she got groped by a guy selling balloons, we chased him and took him to the public committees’ guys that were organizing the flow into the square and they kicked him out of the square.

I don’t mean to say that Tahrir was full of sexual harassment and truly Tahrir witnessed a great state of harmony and positive interaction during those 18 days. I am thinking that denying the sexual harassment during those days may be because we are a conservative culture after all and we’re trying to prove that the mixing of men and women in Tahrir days and nights was innocent and “patriotic”.

Yesterday was an important day for the revolution. Protesters took Tahrir square again to assert revolution’s demands. Islamists groups decided not to participate yesterday so it was a test for liberal and secular groups to organize in the streets. It was considered a success given the thousands that showed up, but it was marred by a horrible incident of sexual harassment of the famous diva Sherihan.

Sherihan

Sherihan was an actress and performer loved by Egyptians particularly during the 80s and 90s. She suffered a severe car accident in mid-90s and it was rumored that it was a chapter of love and power saga that involved Alaa the elder son of Mubarak. She magically recovered and came back to the stage, only to suffer cancer a few years later and move away from the artistic scene. Sherihan was one of the few artists who participated in the revolution unlike many artists who withdrew from making a political stance.

My mother told me that this sad video was screened on TV that shows the horrible incident. The setting around her doesn’t look like Tahrir, some reported that this happened as she was leaving Tahrir yesterday.

What really angers me is the lack of attention such incident got and some of the horrible comments of victim-blame that I always hear when sexual harassment is brought up. Some wonder why she went out of her home! It makes me wonder how deep the denialism about gender inequality is in our country. Even activists refrain from mentioning the incident. Is it because they didn’t know? Or is it an attempt to maintain the silver-lining of the revolution? Is not really important to talk about now? Or is it deep-hidden patriarchy?

But the answer won’t be simple and many factors come at play here. What if this happened to one of the famous activists of the revolution? Does the revolution have an authoritarian system that controls who is important and who’s not? What if the victim of mass harassment was an unknown person? Would it get reported at all?

Lara Logan 

When Lara Logan was sexually assaulted in Tahrir right after Mubarak was toppled, Western media was all over covering her story. Western coverage was very uneven as well with some victim blaming and Islam bashing too. But Egyptian media failed to report on it. Is it because we deny sexual harassment? Is it because she’s a foreigner? Or we were simply overjoyed by Mubarak’s departure?

In gender battles, other factors interfere such as race, age, class, and power. I think we really need to think about these questions and recognize our prejudices. This is how we push the revolution forward.

Do We Know How to Handle Sexual Harassment?

News came out yesterday about a draft law that has been proposed by the government issuing harsher punishments for those who commit sexual harassment and rape crimes, up to the point of death sentence.

The new law tackles various points: adding telephone and the internet to different media through which harassment can occur; and giving more conditions when rape convicts get harsher punishments such as reconsidering victim's age and cases where the victim has been raped by more than one convicts.

This is a reminder of a similar law which just passed a few days ago for combating thuggery. The news of that law was alarming to me as well as many other human rights activists. The move towards stricter law for thuggery was met with a lot of criticism. Just before this particular law was passed, the military forces cracked down on Tahrir protesters, many were detained and tortured. These protesters were claimed to be thugs which puts us at a dilemma of how to determine who's a thug and who's a protester, especially because we are at a time where military courts (where people do not enjoy their full rights of fair trial) have been handling these cases.

Back to sexual harassment, it is quite obvious there's a problem with the way we're dealing with this issue. The phenomenon which began surfacing rather recently in Egypt is rampant. But is issuing stricter punishments the solution for this multifaceted problem? Here's why I don't think so:

I find the process highly questionable. The ministerial council pushes for more punishments for sexual harassment and the supreme military council is happy to enforce these, because this is the language the military best understands. In normal circumstances the ministerial council can propose draft laws and submit them to the parliament to discuss them further. Either way there need to be more public debate about it.

Photo Credit: Amr Nabil/AP/File

Drafting laws without counseling civil society bodies or human rights experts is pretty concerning. These laws have to be compatible with human rights law, and there need to be clear definition and good consensus on what sexual assault entails.

I am more concerned with how to enforce this law, rather than the punishments themselves. There are big question marks on how to get these cases reported? We have a culture of silence about these crimes. It's hard for people to report them because a huge stigma can be placed upon them. Most women who face sexual harassment or even rape never report it to the police or even to their families because their lives can be devastated.

We have this culture of intimidating criminals by increasing punishments. I don’t really believe it works. To be able to overcome a societal problem, we need to handle its underlying causes. All those handling those crimes need to be sensitized about it and fully aware of its implications. By engaging different people in the process of ending the phenomenon of sexual harassment, real achievement can happen on that front.