Egypt's Sisi calls for firm action over Tahrir sex assaults

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/10/egypt-sisi-tahrir-sex-assaults

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Egypt's new president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, has told the country's top policeman to take firm action against sexual harassment, after several women were assaulted by mobs at a celebration to mark his election, and footage emerged of one being stripped naked and surrounded by dozens of men.

"Sisi instructed [the] minister of the interior … to vigorously enforce the law and take all necessary measures to combat sexual harassment, an unacceptable form of conduct," the president's office said in a statement.

The announcement came as prosecutors released testimonies from some victims in which they detailed their ordeals. One woman said she was attacked as she left Cairo's Tahrir Square, a hub for mass gatherings since Egypt's 2011 uprising, with her two pre-teen daughters.

"I begged them to let my daughters go and take me and they did, then tore my clothes with a knife and sexually assaulted me," the woman told prosecutors in a statement obtained by Reuters.

Seven men aged between 15 and 49 have been arrested for their alleged role in the attacks, reportedly under legislation enacted last week that banned sexual harassment for the first time in Egypt. Some activists are cautiously heartened by the state's response, as it marks the first time that the police have made any attempt to combat the mob assaults that have been endemic at Tahrir Square rallies since the last day of the 2011 uprising.

But others warn that the state needs a far more strategic long-term plan to end sexual harassment and assaults in Egypt, where UN research suggests that more than 99% of women have experienced harassment, but where only a handful of men have ever been convicted of harassment-related crimes. "The state continues to be unable to stand up to these crimes," read a joint statement from 25 Egyptian rights groups released in the aftermath of the most recent assaults.

Other reactions to Sunday's attacks highlighted the ways in which large parts of society fail to take violence against women seriously.

Groups on both sides of Egypt's main political divide sought to score political points by blaming the assaults on their enemies. Dalia Ziada, the head of a pro-government research group, blamed the assaults on the Muslim Brotherhood, while the state-run National Council for Women implied in a statement that the attacks had been committed by Sisi's enemies.

For their part, the Brotherhood's political wing blamed the incidents on a social decay brought about by Sisi's ousting of the Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi as president last summer.

Opinions are divided about Sisi's own commitment to ending violence against women. In his campaign interviews, Sisi frequently praised women. But his critics note the patronising language of his compliments, and his support in 2012 for the practice of forcing female detainees to undergo virginity tests.