Friday, June 13, 2014

#EndSH : The video is not the Problem

Ok lots of updates following Egypt's latest mass sexual harassment and assault incidents in Tahrir square.

On Wednesday President El-Sisi paid a visit to one of the victims currently being treated for burns in El-
The anatomy of a harasser by Ternz
Halmia military hospital along the minister of defense where he vowed to fight sexual harassment apologizing for the victim and the Egyptian women for the spread of that epidemic
.

Needless to say after that visit all the media has launched a crusade on that alien phenomenon attacking the Egyptian society following this visit. Now the president admits that there was something.
The victim asked El-Sisi to remove the video showing her being assaulted in Tahrir square and so the Presidency asked YouTube to remove that video filmed from two weeks ago showing the assault. 

 I forgot to say that the Egyptian National TV blurred the victim's face during El-Sisi's visit "it was aired on TV" but left her mother's face !!! This is much better than the ministry of health which sent a press release to the media with the photo and name of the victim before asking them to blur the photo !!

Just like any president of Egypt , El-Sisi gave his orders to form another governmental commission made of religious institutions and bunch of ministries to put a strategy against sexual harassment in Egypt !!! Yeah a strategy.


I am sorry for not joining the festivity mood of celebrating on how El-Sisi apologized to the victim but I got a very bad problem : I do not forget easily. No one has apologized for the girls who had undergone virginity tests in March 2011 "El-Sisi him admitted that there were virginity tests in Egypt in his meeting with the head of Amnesty International" or the famous Blue bra girl in December 2011.
I can not forget either that there are girls in Anatar women's prison are being beaten and assaulted during their imprisonment because of their political affiliation.  

By the way Entasser El-Sisi , Egypt's current first lady visited the victim at the military hospital  early Friday in what is considered her first public visit as a First lady. It is still unclear if she is going to have a public role like Jihan El-Sadat and Suzanne Mubarak or will have a small public role like Tahia Abdel Nasser and Naglaa Morsi.

Earlier today during his cycling marathon which he won it , President El-Sisi spoke about sexual harassment problem and he attacked the sexual assault video and that person who filmed. The Field Marshal wondered how the man had the guts to leave "his honor" {The lady} to be assaulted and to film that video and share the video defaming his country.

As much as I understand the debate about whether the man should have tried to save the lady or to complete filming but I do not understand how this clip defamed the country. This quote means that we are returning to the old days of sweeping dirt under the carpet for fear of defaming our image in front of the world as if the world does not know the truth !!

Let's be clear here without any photo or video footage unfortunately no one would have believed that there were horrifying sexual assaults in Tahrir square whether now or in the past. In fact no one would have believed that there were torture, abuse and brutality in Egyptian police stations without video or photo proof because simply people reject to admit that we got problems. Nobody would have cared about the victims if that shocking video did not find its way to the internet.

Do you know that during the 30 June protests till the ousting of Morsi on 4 July Tahrir square witnessed several sexual harassment and assaults and that nobody gave a damn in the media !?

Last week hours the Pro El-Sisi supporters claimed that the video clip was an old one from 2011 and that the ones who spread it "Marwan Arafa" was a Muslim Brotherhood supporter "he is not and he did not film it , he only shared it and he removed it now" . Some of them even claimed that that video was made to spoil their celebration. Of course when the authenticity of that video was confirmed they shifted to the new level of accusations.

The Pro El-Sisi supporters  are attacking the person who film the incident claiming that he was coward and he should have defended the woman instead of filming her , well this is the biggest dilemma ever that meets photographers and video journalists whether professional or amateurs but this is not their true issue. It is about exposing an ugly truth that tried to hide.

Either ways I know that that anonymous person who filmed the video and Marwan Arafa helped the cause against sexual harassment a lot and that they helped the victims a lot because if there was no video , nobody would have cared.

Now for those who are always claiming that the social media is useless, well it is not useless because Tahrir TV channel has suspended TV host Maha Bahnassey after her remarks. Of course Mrs. Maha acts as if she was a victim of campaign against her because of her political views.

Anyhow she got a competition in the stupid remarks grand Prix , actress and sex symbol Ghada Abdel Razik said on her instagram account that she wanted to be sexually harassed so President El-Sisi would visit her !! Of course Abdel Razik later said that she was joking and that she was one of the founders of "Execution For Sexual harasser" Facebook page !!!!

Tomorrow there will be a big rally against the sexual harassment tomorrow afternoon at Cairo Opera House. The rally is originally organized by an independent activist who is not a member of feminist NGO or anti-Sexual harassment NGO.

Still she is cooperating with several NGOs in organizing the event which was granted the MOI's permit for assembly. Yes there is no fear that the protesters tomorrow will be arrested for illegal protesting. 

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