cairo police crackdown on flirting

[Amby 490]

EGYPTIAN police have rounded up hundreds of teenage boys in Cairo in a day-long crackdown on sexual harassment.

"We have arrested a large number of boys who were flirting with girls," Cairo's police director Faruq Lashin said.

About 400 teenagers, aged between 15 and 17, were arrested on Wednesday and will be brought before a judge, he said.

Police targeted teenagers in front of schools, universities and along the Nile's banks, he said.

The teenagers were expected to be fined, a police official said.

Women's rights groups in Egypt have long campaigned against sexual harassment and assault in Cairo, accusing police of ignoring the phenomenon.

On Monday, a Cairo court jailed a teenager for one year for sexually assaulting two women.

Another teenager, a 17 year old, is facing trial on the same charge.

At least 34 men were arrested after they allegedly assaulted women in an affluent Cairo neighbourhood during a Muslim holiday in January.

Such convictions are relatively rare in Egypt, which does not have a law defining sexual harassment, but a court in October sentenced a man to three years in jail for groping a woman.

Women's rights activists welcomed that ruling and said it was unprecedented in Egypt.

The Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR) issued a survey this summer saying 83 per cent of Egyptian women and 98 per cent of foreign women in Egypt had experienced sexual harassment.

The study said only 12 per cent of the 2500 women who reported cases of sexual harassment to ECWR went to the police with their complaint.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0...from=public_rss

[Jenn! 918]

hmmm, flirting and assault seem to be two opposite ends of a very wide spectrum.

[Nagishkaw 510]

[Amby 490]

I was a bit confused by it

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

I wonder if this is a response to the Women's Rights Group they mentioned in the article? There was an article put out a few months ago by this group reporting that 98% of women in Egypt complained of being sexually harassed by native men in Egypt at least once in the past year. All makes all shapes all kinds and models of women from all walks were interviewed. Some of the descriptions of what these boys did was disgusting. They'd wag their ####### at the women isolating her on a bridge and rub it on her sometimes. Other reports were foul language. One woman in an Expat Group for those living in Egypt reported being touched and grouped by as much as four men while on her way to class one morning. She was there to study Arabic and was very distraught.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Ah here is the article on it that I posted a while ago. This will shed some history on why were are seeing this reaction in todays news. Over half of all women in Egypt report being harassed daily

I got it wrong. I thought it was 98% report at least once a year being sexually harassed when in fact it is much bigger than that! It's an epidemic of daily harassment on over half the female population of Egypt. This is really good the police are capturing 400 men! They need to do this everyday! If it's over half daily sure 400 men are not all the ones doing it! Go get em!!!