By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post / August 24, 2008
CAIRO - In a Muslim country where the numbers of women wearing the
veil are rising, and so - by most accounts - are incidents of groping
and catcalls in the streets, the message in ads circulating
anonymously in e-mails here in Egypt is clear:
"A veil to protect, or eyes will molest," one warns.
The words sit over two illustrations, one comparing a veiled woman,
her hair and neck covered in the manner known to Muslims as hijab, to
a wrapped candy, untouched and pure.
The other picture shows an unveiled woman, hair flying wildly and hip
jutting, next to a candy that has had its wrapper removed and is now
covered in flies.
No group has claimed responsibility for the online ads, which so far
have drawn little attention outside Egyptian blogs.
But the campaign comes at a time of converging debate on two keenly
felt issues in Egypt: the growing social pressure on Muslim women to
veil themselves and the rising incidence of sexual harassment of women
by strangers.
Surprisingly, some Egyptian women say their veils don't protect
against harassment, as the ads argue, but fuel it. A survey released
this summer supports the view.
"These guys are animals. If they saw a female dog, they would harass
it," Hind Sayed, 20, a sidewalk vendor in Cairo's Mohandisseen
district, said, staring coldly at a knot of male vendors who stood
grinning a few feet from her.
In accord with her interpretation of Islamic law, which says women
should dress modestly, Sayed wore a flowing black robe and black veil.
They covered all but her hands and her pale face with its drawn-on,
expressive eyebrows.
Still, Sayed said, she daily endures suggestive comments from male
customers and fellow vendors.
"I think a woman who wears hijab can be more provocative to them,"
Sayed said. "The more covered up you are, the more interesting you are
to them."
Zuhair Mohammed, 60, a shopper on the same street who stopped wearing
the traditional covering long ago, agreed: "I feel like with the
hijab, it makes them wonder, 'What are you hiding underneath?' "
Mona Eltahawy, 41, an Egyptian social commentator who now lives,
unveiled, in the United States, said she was harassed "countless
times" while wearing hijab for nine years in Egypt. Eltahawy has
concluded that the increase in veiling has contributed somehow to the
increase in harassment.
"The more women veil the less men learn to behave as decent and
civilized members of society," Eltahawy wrote in an interview via
Facebook. "And the more women are harassed, the more they veil,
thinking it will 'protect' them."
Female travelers consider Egypt one of the worst countries in the
world for harassment on the streets - second only to Afghanistan,
where the Taliban forced all women behind the veil and into seclusion
in their homes.
The United States and Britain both warn female visitors in travel
advisories of possible unwanted attention or sexual attacks in Egypt.
This summer, Egyptian lawmakers called Britain's advisory a slur;
Britain responded that more female British tourists were harassed,
assaulted, and raped, while in Egypt than in any other country.
A new survey by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights makes
harassment on the streets appear not a risk but a virtual certainty:
98 percent of the foreign women and 83 percent of the Egyptian women
surveyed said they had been sexually harassed in the country.
About half of all the women said they were harassed daily on the
streets. Foreign women identified Egyptian policemen and other
security officials as the most frequent harassers.
The survey polled 2,020 Egyptian men and women and 109 non-Egyptian women.
Two-thirds of the Egyptian men surveyed admitted to harassing women,
in actions ranging from staring openly at their bodies, shouting
explicit comments, touching the women, or exposing themselves.
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