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The sickening attitudes held by Egyptians to women are something else which doesn't surprise me having lived in Egypt on two occasions. The men there are. for the most part, quite simply disgusting when it comes to their treatment of women. A very tiny minority actually respect women. The rest pay lip service to respecting their wives, sisters and daughters but then degrade any other woman they meet.
Some try to blame their lack of morals on the secular government and claim that a sharia system would erase all evils. However, only 30 years ago, Egypt was a very western styled country. Women and men dressed in western clothes and mingled freely. AND there was far, far less immoral behaviour. Later generations (after the fall of Nassr) embraced Islam as their saviour - to the bafflement of their parents. As Egypt has become more and more religious, the morality of the population has degraded.
Censored films have convinced the male population that western women will sleep with any man who asks or pays her. Since everything from a kiss onward is cut out, the audiences see a man and a woman start to kiss and then, blank. So they assume that every movie kiss automatically leads to full on sex. One just needs to see the final minutes of the brilliant film, "Cinema Pardiso" to know that this is certainly not the case. But, even the educated Caireans I used to teach were convinced that western women were really that easy.
However, as the articles mentioned in here will tell you, both western and Egyptian, both veiled and skimply dressed women receive exactly the same treatment at the hands of men. And it is any surprise in a country where the leading Imams all claim that female gential mutiliation (aka circumsion) is the best solution because it reduces a woman's sexual drive and (ipso facto) then they will not lead men into temptation. My personal feeling is that the men should be castrated if they cannot control their appetites and leave the infant girls alone.
As demonstrated by the incident (link below) in 2006, it doesn't matter if they are Western woman scantily clad or native Egyptians completely veiled. Egyptians are horrified by the news that women have been assaulted by hordes of young men in the centre of the capital, Cairo.
To hear comments directly from Cairean women, see also:
Egypt voices: Sexual harassment
Some try to blame their lack of morals on the secular government and claim that a sharia system would erase all evils. However, only 30 years ago, Egypt was a very western styled country. Women and men dressed in western clothes and mingled freely. AND there was far, far less immoral behaviour. Later generations (after the fall of Nassr) embraced Islam as their saviour - to the bafflement of their parents. As Egypt has become more and more religious, the morality of the population has degraded.
Censored films have convinced the male population that western women will sleep with any man who asks or pays her. Since everything from a kiss onward is cut out, the audiences see a man and a woman start to kiss and then, blank. So they assume that every movie kiss automatically leads to full on sex. One just needs to see the final minutes of the brilliant film, "Cinema Pardiso" to know that this is certainly not the case. But, even the educated Caireans I used to teach were convinced that western women were really that easy.
However, as the articles mentioned in here will tell you, both western and Egyptian, both veiled and skimply dressed women receive exactly the same treatment at the hands of men. And it is any surprise in a country where the leading Imams all claim that female gential mutiliation (aka circumsion) is the best solution because it reduces a woman's sexual drive and (ipso facto) then they will not lead men into temptation. My personal feeling is that the men should be castrated if they cannot control their appetites and leave the infant girls alone.
As demonstrated by the incident (link below) in 2006, it doesn't matter if they are Western woman scantily clad or native Egyptians completely veiled. Egyptians are horrified by the news that women have been assaulted by hordes of young men in the centre of the capital, Cairo.
To hear comments directly from Cairean women, see also:
Egypt voices: Sexual harassment
Egypt's sexual harassment 'cancer'
SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN EGYPT
Experienced by 98% of foreign women visitors
Experienced by 83% of Egyptian women
62% of Egyptian men admitted harassing women
53% of Egyptian men blame women for 'bringing it on'
Source: Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights
Two-thirds of Egyptian men harass women
Thu Jul 17, 2008 4:03pm BST
CAIRO (Reuters) - Nearly two-thirds of Egyptian men admit to having sexually harassed women in the most populous Arab country, and a majority say women themselves are to blame for their maltreatment, a survey showed on Thursday.
The forms of harassment reported by Egyptian men, whose country attracts millions of foreign tourists each year, include touching or ogling women, shouting sexually explicit remarks, and exposing their genitals to women. "Sexual harassment has become an overwhelming and very real problem experienced by all women in Egyptian society, often on a daily basis," said the report by the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights.
Egyptian women and female visitors frequently complain of persistent sexual harassment on Egyptian streets, despite the socially conservative nature of this traditional Muslim society.
The behaviour could have repercussions on Egypt's tourism industry, a major foreign income earner, with 98 percent of foreign women saying they had experienced harassment in the country, the survey said.
The survey of more than 2,000 Egyptian men and women and 109 foreign women said the vast majority of Egyptians believed that sexual harassment in Egypt was on the rise, citing a worsening economic situation and a lack of awareness or religious values.
It said 62 percent of Egyptian men reported perpetrating harassment, while 83 percent of Egyptian women reported having been sexually harassed. Nearly half of women said the abuse occurred daily.
Only 2.4 percent of Egyptian women reported it to the police, with most saying they did not believe anyone would help. Some feared reporting harassment would hurt their reputations.
"The vast majority of women did nothing when confronted with sexual harassment," the survey said, adding that most Egyptian women believed the victim should "remain silent".
Some 53 percent of men blamed women for bringing on sexual harassment, saying they enjoyed it or were dressed in a way deemed indecent. Some women agreed.
"Out of Egyptian women and men interviewed, most believe that women who wear tight clothes deserve to be harassed," the survey said. It added most agreed women should be home by 8 p.m.
The survey said most of the Egyptian women who told of being harassed said they were dressed conservatively, with the majority wearing the Islamic headscarf. The harassment took place on the streets or on public transport, as well as in tourist destinations and foreign educational institutions.
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