17 Yr old Boy is Killed in Egypt While defending woman of Sexual Harassment
Ahmed Fayed, 17, stabbed to death while helping women escape sexual harassment
Ahmed Fayed, 17, was stabbed to death on Sunday while attempting to rescue women from sexual harassment, reported activist group Shoft Ta7arosh (‘I Saw Harassment’).
According to local media reports, the young man was stabbed in the heart after intervening to stop the sexual harassment of a group of women in the town of Ra’as Al-Bar, located in the governorate of Damietta.
The body of Ahmed has been transported to a local hospital where an autopsy will be performed.
Local police have meanwhile announced that two 17-year-olds and one 18-year-old have been arrested in connection with the stabbing. Police announced that the three teenagers had confessed to the crime shortly after their arrest.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT PLAGUES EID HOLIDAY
While campaigners have noted that there has been a reduction in the number of sexual harassment during this year’s Eid Al-Adha holiday, dozens of cases have nevertheless been reported.
According to “I Saw Harassment,” the second day of Eid saw them witnessing and intervening in 25 cases of harassment in Cairo, while the first day saw 21 incidents in downtown Cairo. However, the group warned that a lower number of cases does not mean that the problem is decreasing, but that heightened security may have had an impact. Moreover, the group’s activities do not cover countless other parks and cities in Egypt.
Holiday seasons in Egypt are normally associated with a peak in sexual harassment. In 2012, security forces reported 727 cases of sexual harassment over Eid Al-Adha.
Sexual harassment continues to be an epidemic in Egypt with almost 99 percent of women surveyed in a report released April 2013 by the United Nations in collaboration with Egypt’s Demographic Centre and the National Planning Institute, have reported being sexually harassed.
A law introduced by former interim President Adli Mansour in May stated that sexual harassers shall face imprisonment for at least one year and a fine of at least 3,000 Egyptian pounds (419 US Dollar).
Previously, Egypt had no specific law forbidding sexual harassment. However, some articles in the penal code were sometimes enforced in the occurrence of harassment cases.
Egypt sees women as very low in the human evolution:
Amr Adib, an Egyptian television host with one of the highest number of viewers in the Middle East, has equated women to servants in his latest episode.
Adib, who is also one of the most influential television hosts in the region, started his segment with a story about a woman in New York telling her new husband that he should wash his dirty dishes, pick up his used towel and clothes.
Adib, looking straight at the camera in an agitated fashion then asks, “is it not in the services of a wife, for when I leave my pants [on the floor], to pick it up? When I leave my dirty plate, to pick it up? We are starting to ask the important historical questions. Why else am I married?”
The co-host, visibly surprised, asks Adib “is that the only reason you are married?”
“No that is not the only reason, but it is not my role to pick up the pants,” replied Adib sternly.
“What do you mean pick up your pants? I came [home] tired. Pick up my pants as well?! After a while she will tell me take a day in the week and wash your clothes with your hands!”
“Something happened to women…what do you mean pick up my plate? I will drop it, you will take off my shirt and tell me ‘don’t worry, drop it again my love,’ and dress me before I sleep and cover me [with blankets] when I am cold, and turn on the air conditioner when I am hot, and not sleep until I sleep!”
The co-host, angered by Adib’s comments, sarcastically remarks “get a nanny then,” further agitating Adib, who has by now lost all his female viewers, to shout “then why is she here!”
Attempting to reason with him, the co-host says that the wife is not a servant, but Adib insists that a wife’s role is to ‘pick up my pants, and my dishes.’
“If you work and she doesn’t work, sure she might have some duties at home, but this doesn’t mean you should be disgusting, throwing your stuff all over the place,” said the co-host.
To this, Adeeb responds “it is not disgusting…it’s being a husband! Just as I saw my dad. He would enter, throw his stuff and my mother would pick it up.”
When the co-host says that this still does not entitle a man to act irresponsibly, Adib exclaims “what, so do you take off your shirt and hang it up yourself?!”
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