Saudi Men Blame Women For Rise In "Molestation" According To Survey

According to a survey, the majority of Saudi men blame makeup for the increase in public molestation of women.

Is that surprising? No.

Saudi men believe women are to blame for the rising cases involving molestation of females on the grounds they are seduced by women’s excessive make up.

The findings were included in a survey conducted by the Riyadh-based King Abdul Aziz Centre for National Dialogue and involved 992 males and females.

The survey, carried by Saudi newspapers, found that 86.5 per cent of the men polled believe that women’s exaggeration in wearing make-up is the main cause of the rise in molestation cases in public places in the conservative Gulf Kingdom.

About 80 per cent of the total persons polled believe lack of deterrent penalties and the absence of specific anti-molestation laws are also to blame for the phenomenon.

The report said 91 per cent of the respondents, all aged above 19, believe another key factor is the “poor religious sentiment” while nearly 75 per cent said the problem is caused by lack of awareness campaigns and warning notices at most public places.

No warning signs? Really?  They need to be told it's not okay to sexually harrass or molest women?

Basically what this survey says is that Saudi men have no clue how to conduct themselves in  a civilized manner, and feel the need to blame someone and not their lack of self control.

Source: Emirates247 

Acid Attack On Unveiled Egyptian Woman - Young Activist Discusses

Here's an interesting article by a young Egyptian woman, Reem Abdel-Razek, regarding Egypt's horrendous problem with sexual harassment. Apparently what they are now doing is throwing acid on girls from behind, so she is initially unaware of what happened to her. It happened to the sister of a friend of hers in Cairo, in broad daylight.

Esraa [Mohamed] was walking in her own neighborhood at 3 p.m. when she realized she was being followed by a well-dressed, respectable looking stranger. He said, “I am not harassing you but don’t forget to wipe off your pants.”

She suddenly began to feel a burning pain in her backside and rushed into a cafe to see what was wrong. It was then that she realized she couldn’t remove her pants and took a cab home. By that time the pain was so excruciating that she almost fainted; her buttocks and the back of her thighs had been burned by acid that had eaten into her flesh. The doctor who examined her said she had second and third-degree burns, with cell necrosis in some areas. The diagnosis was “chemical burn by an unidentified corrosive.”

According to Abdel-Razek, this has also happened to others, most have just been too embarrassed to tell anyone.

Esraa does not wear a veil, and they think this might have been the reason she was attacked, at least that's what some Facebook users told her was the reason.

Abdel-Razek also talks about how sexual harassment was virtually unheard of in the 50s and 60s, during the time when very few women wore the veil. The harassment, she believes, has escalated (out of control) with the growing influence of Islamists.

The role of Islamist propaganda in promoting the acceptance of violence against women often gets overlooked by those who are afraid of appearing “Islamophobic” or racist. But addressing the roots of violence against women is one of the most important steps in eradicating it.

During the 1950s and ’60s, this level of sexual persecution was unheard of in Egypt. At that time, hardly anyone in cities wore the veil and Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, had virtually disappeared due to the Gamal Abdel Nasser regime’s systematic attempts to eradicate them. When Anwar Sadat became president in 1970, he eased up on the Islamists because he wanted their support against leftist groups. Thus the 1970s witnessed a religious revival. By the 1980s and ’90s, the Brotherhood’s influence and the social services it provided were entrenched in many villages and neighborhoods, and the number of women wearing the veil rose significantly as a mark of the influence of political Islam.

I remember a conversation about the hijab between my mother and a woman who belonged to the Brotherhood. She said, “Every time I think about how uncomfortable it is, I remember that by wearing it I am promoting our ideology.”

Islamists launched campaigns pushing the veil. One showed a picture of a three legged chair and said it was like a woman without a veil. Another showed a lollipop wrapped in paper next to an unwrapped lollipop covered with flies, which it compared to a woman who does not veil. These campaigns objectified women by comparing them to chairs and candy, and dehumanizing women is the first step in justifying violence against them.

Radio and TV channels that catered to Islamist agendas (most of which have been shut down in the past few months) endlessly justified wife beating, female genital mutilation, marital rape, and other forms of violence against women. They also promoted the idea that women are inferior to men and in need of constant monitoring and disciplining. Those on the receiving end of these messages aren’t just orthodox Muslims or Muslim Brotherhood members, but a much wider demographic.

And talking to the police about sexual harassment is futile because the police think the same way as the harassers.

Not to say that women wearing hijab don't get harassed, they do, they probably just don't get acid thrown on them.

More info- Source

Egypt Ranks Worst For Women In Arab World In Thomson Reuter Poll

Believe it or not, Egypt tops the list as the worst Arab country for women, with Comoros coming in as the best, at least according to a Thomson Reuters Foundation survey.  I would have thought Saudi Arabia or Yemen would have taken top honors, but no, it's Egypt because of various factors including rampant and excessive sexual harassment, female genital mutilation (FGM), trafficking, the rise of Islamism (and the violence that has ensued) as a result of the Arab Spring,

The poll by Thomson Reuters' philanthropic arm surveyed 336 gender experts in August and September in 21 Arab League states and Syria, which was a founding member of the Arab League but was suspended in 2011.
[snip]
The poll assessed violence against women, reproductive rights, treatment of women within the family, their integration into society and attitudes towards a woman’s role in politics and the economy.

99.3 percent of Egyptian women have experienced some form of sexual harassment, per a UN report in April. At the height of the anti-Morsi protests in June, 91 women were reported as having been raped or sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square, according to Human Rights Watch.

“The social acceptability of everyday sexual harassment affects every woman in Egypt regardless of age, professional or socio-economic background, marriage status, dress or behavior,” said Noora Flinkman, communications manager at HarassMap, a Cairo-based rights group that campaigns against harassment. “It limits women’s participation in public life. It affects their safety and security, their sense of worth, self-confidence and health.”

Then there's the trafficking and forced marriage of women. Zahra Radwan of  Global Fund For Women claims:

“There are whole villages on the outskirts of Cairo and elsewhere where the bulk of economic activity is based on trafficking in women and forced marriages."

As for FGM, UNICEF says that a whopping 27.2 million women and young girls have been cut. That's 91% of the female population. Djibouti, though, beats Egypt by 2%.

Here's a list of how each country ranked (from worst to best):

22. Egypt
21. Iraq
20. Saudi Arabia
19. Syria
18. Yemen
17. Sudan
16. Lebanon
15. Palestinian territories
14. Somalia
13. Djibouti
12. Bahrain
11. Mauritania
10. UAE
9. Libya
8. Morocco
7. Algeria
6. Tunisia
5. Qatar
4. Jordan
3. Kuwait
2. Oman
1. Comoros

Ahram has more on why some of the others ranked worst.

But here's an article that discusses why ranking Egypt as number one is misleading.

They're all pretty pathetic when it comes to women's rights.

Joyce Carol Oates Blasted For Egypt Tweets Linking Islam and Culture of Rape

Prolific writer Joyce Carol Oates  is receiving a lot of flak for posting on Twitter about the troubling culture of rape in Egypt and linking it to Islam.

Oates's 140-word political tweet-bombs began by remarking: "Something dispiriting about 'Brotherhood' political parties – wonder what it is."

And drove on with "Where 99.3% of women report having been sexually harassed & rape is epidemic – Egypt – natural to inquire: what's the predominant religion?"

Legitimate question to ask, but these are some of the responses she received..

Open City author Teju Cole (@tejucole) responded: "This makes me sad. Religion is a non sequitur here. You're being unfair, and presenting that unfairness as forthrightness."

Writer Edward Champion (@drmabuse) replied "80 sexual assaults in one day, @joycecaroloates? Try 720 in one day in the US…"

Journalist and novelist Lorraine Adams (@lorraineadams) added: "Violence against women is rampant across almost all cultures since time began. Why is that so hard to understand?"

Other Twitter users poked fun at Oates, with @cszabla saying "love your literary experiment tweeting in the voice of Oates tweeting in the voice of Fox News, @JoyceCarolOates!"

Not surprisingly, she backpedaled, because that's what people do when faced with a barrage of negative response.

 "Blaming religion(s) for cruel behavior of believers may be a way of not wishing to acknowledge they'd be just as cruel if secular."

Edward Champion's comparison of rape statistics between Egypt and the U.S. is asinine. First of all:

Population of Egypt in 2012: approximately 83,688,164
Population of the U.S. in 2012: almost 313 Million people

Uh, no comparison Edward.

And yes, there were rapes and sexual assaults during the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) demonstrations- if we're going to compare apples to apples- but again, no comparison in terms of amounts of rapes in one day. Although, granted, there weren't the hordes that were protesting in Tahrir Square at the OWS protests.

She had every right to pose that question. There may be a lot of rapes and sexual harassment in this country, but I would venture to say that the percentage is far from 99% of the female population.

Why is sexual harassment so rampant in Egypt, a Muslim-majority country?

Video- Sexual Violence Against Women In Egypt

From Human Rights Watch:

New York, July 3, 2013) -- Egyptian anti-sexual harassment groups confirmed that mobs sexually assaulted and in some cases raped at least 91 women in Tahrir Square over four days of protests beginning on June 30, 2013 amid a climate of impunity. Human Rights Watch has long documented the problem of sexual assault in Cairo's streets and particularly at protests. A new video highlights the stories of women who have been attacked, in some cases as recently as January.

Sexual harassment has been an ongoing problem for women for decades. Men blame it on women- how they dress and how they walk- even though modestly dressed, hijab-clad women are also targeted. Nothing is done about it, on any level, so it continues.

Sexual Violence Against Women Has Increased Under Egyptian Islamist Rule

Apparently, Egyptian women have seen an increase in sexual violence and harassment since the Islamists have taken leadership of the country. Not that they weren't harassed prior to the takeover of the Muslim Brotherhood. Big time.  It's just gotten worse, if that's at all possible.  The numbers are outrageous.

Sexual violence against women in Egypt has increased in the post-revolutionary Islamist rule, according to official reports and rights activists.

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality said in a report published on May 23 that 99.3 percent of Egyptian women have experienced some form of sexual violence.

Nearly 50 percent of women reported more harassment after the revolution; 44 percent said the level of harassment remained the same before and after the revolution. Meanwhile, more than 58 percent of men surveyed said harassment increased after the revolution.

Egypt's general directorate of moral police at the ministry of interior reported that 9,468 cases of harassment, 329 sexual assaults and 112 cases of rape took place in 2012.

Activists say the figures released by the government are smaller than the actual ones because many women do not report cases of harassment against them to the police in fear of shame.

The U.N. study found that only 19 percent of women actually report sexual violence against them to the police. It said 32.2 percent keep quiet and move away from the scene, while 26.9 choose to insult or hit back the assailant.

Read the rest here.

So much for Islam treating women with dignity. Where are the Imams and Clerics? They should be condemning this kind of behaviour in their Friday afternoon prayers. They should be issuing fatwas against sexual violence and harassment.

I won't hold my breath.

Video- Coptic Christian Women Assaulted In Egypt

This video shows several Coptic Christian women being assaulted in Egypt. In spite of the fact that it appears they were wearing hijab and modest clothing, they were still attacked by a mob of men shouting Allahu Akbar- in broad daylight. But it's not just Christian women who are sexually harassed, all females are targets in Egypt, because Egyptian men have no respect for women.

Jordanian Professor Fired Over Sexual Harassment Video

Sexual harassment is rampant in Middle Eastern culture. In Egypt women deal with it on a daily basis, in spite of the fact most women there now wear the Islamic veil. Perhaps much of that has to do with women being considered objects in those male-dominated, chauvinistic societies. Yes, it exists in the West but nowhere to the extent it does over there. In the U.S. it can occur in the workplace- I have worked on enough industrial films dealing with that subject to know it does happen- but you don't usually encounter harassment on the street.

So some female students at the University of Jordan Khleif al-Tawarneh, under the supervision of their Feminist Theory professor Rula Quawas produced a video dealing with the subject of sexual harassment on university campuses. The pretty innocuous video posted on Youtube, and the subsequent furor it created, led to the firing of Quawas, the much loved dean of  the School of Foreign Languages.

Critics accused the film makers of “promoting vice and stripping the society of its values.”

Not surprising that they would fry the messenger, since the males obviously don't consider their actions to be offensive.

President Ikhleif Tarawneh said she was fired because the video tarnished the reputation of the university, others believe it was "an act of vengeance."

Dismissal of the Feminist Theory’s professor angered activists, journalists, writers, and students. Several campaigns were launched to express solidarity with her and in which she was praised for making a film that raises awareness about sexual harassment. 

Tawarneh claims it had nothing to do with the video, but rather  an administrative prerogative. Others disagree:

But the Committee for Academic Freedoms at the University of Middle East Studies in Jordan rejected Tawarneh’s claims and said there were no documents proving Qawas’s negligence or weak performance, the decision could not have been administrative. The timing showed that the film was the reason for her dismissal, the committee added. 

The Cairo-based Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said Qawas’s dismissal constituted “a flagrant violation of freedom of expression and academic research,” and accused Tawarneh of persecuting her.

Rather than deal with what is evidently a chronic problem on his campus, Tawarneh fired the one person inspiring others to fight it. This will only encourage the bad boys to continue their harassment. Typical.