This week, my article is dealing with a serious topic – sexual harassment. While every GW jet-setter will most likely encounter this when travelling to certain Middle Eastern countries, I want to stress that it should in no way change your decision to travel there! While it occurs throughout the world to varying degrees, without any bias or fabrication of the truth, it happens very frequently in the Middle East. As this is an extremely sensitive topic and debated about frequently both within Middle Eastern countries and internationally, I will treat it as such as well. While I have only lived in Cairo and Amman, and I’ve just visited Istanbul (it isn’t technically the Middle East, but it has some similar cultural aspects), I also keep in close contact with friends who moved to Rabat, Morocco after evacuation. It is both from personal experience and from volunteering at several women’s rights organizations in the Middle East (The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights and The Jordanian Women’s Union) that I feel I can discuss this topic. To clarify, I am not putting words into Middle Eastern women’s mouths, just trying to explain my experiences as a Western woman/student with the statistically-shown high sexual harassment in certain Middle Eastern countries. First of all, I want to highlight that this is completely a cultural issue – nowhere in the Qur’an or in Islam does it approve the subjugation of women and countless Muslim scholars and philosophers argue constantly for additional women’s rights. It is a cultural practice that developed in part from the current economic difficulties in the world and men not being able to marry until later on in life. It is also the western influences coming into and distorting their own traditions and culture of how women should be. To start, harassment in Egypt is horrid – from my organization, I learned that somewhere around 88% of Egyptian women are sexually harassed at some point in their life while 98% of foreign women or tourists are. This is also evident now in Egypt as well – only one female was selected to be in the interim government. In Egypt, it can range from purely verbal to completely physical – I’ve experienced both. Every day I would get awkward gawks and constantly have “mozza” (banana, derogatory, basically means slut) yelled at me while walking to class. The worst I experience I had was having my hair pulled (because I am blonde) and being stoned. Some other girls, while walking alone at night, were followed home by random men even. In Jordan, it is only verbal – while less women get harassed daily, it is still prevalent. I still get “mozza” and things yelled at me, but to a much less frequency than in Cairo. In Turkey, it was a mixture of harassment and haggling all twisted into How did I deal with it? I can honestly say while it has been a cause for some bad days, I have not at all let it ruin my study abroad experience. As we were prepared for it by AMIDEAST’s orientation, I learned to ignore it. It can be hurtful at first, but it must be remembered that these men are not attacking you personally, they just want to get any woman’s attention. You must laugh it off and just think “Yes, thank you sir, I am a banana. What you’re telling me makes complete sense,” or have a mozza-counter with your other female friends. When the harassment borders on physical, in Egypt a “Haram allek!” should do the trick while in Jordan you should seek help from police or get out of the situation. Practical solutions exist as well – gender separated metros, not dressing scandalous, not being black-out drunk in public (same goes for harassment situations in the US too), not walking alone at night, etc. I will tie this into my next article… fashion in Cairo, Amman, and Istanbul and how to dress as a visitor to these countries to avoid harassment! While it is a real problem, I still am in love with the Middle East and my study abroad experience. It is a region that (after the revolutions) everyone, especially girls, should visit at some point in their life. Egyptian and Jordanian women are fighting for their rights and In Sha Allah they will get them soon. With increased advocacy in the region during recent years, slowly but surely sexual harassment is being combated.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at GWU chapter.