By Eunice Kilonzo
CAIRO----Egypt, the third most populated country in Africa has been a pace-setter to the African continent, be it technology, agriculture, the famous Arab uprising among other accolade. Sadly, human rights violations as well as sexual harassment (as recently documented by the Human Rights Watch) aimed at women have cast a shadow to achievements of this Pyramid dotted Country. Furthermore, the Tahrir square that was the apex of the Arab Spring, a location of protest against dictatorship and brutality with hopeful calls for greater freedoms and representation, is now a dangerous and forbidding place: particularly for women.
Such is the case of Yasmine, who filmed the demonstration at Tahrir Square was sexually assaulted. A mob of about 50 men began grabbing her breasts. As they became more frenzied, they ripped off her clothes and her headscarf. The few men who tried to help her were beaten by the mob. For nearly an hour, scores of men sexually assaulted Yasmine, indecently assaulting her with their hands. She was bruised, battered and naked. Yasmine suffered internal injuries and could not walk for a week.
In February last year, the CBS correspondent Lara Logan was attacked in Tahrir Square by a group of about 300 men. They sexually assaulted her for about 30 minutes. She later described how she had been “raped with their hands”. Sadly, mob attacks in Egypt can be traced back to just before 2005 when, under the former President, Hosni Mubarak, the Government paid goons to beat male protesters and sexually assault women. It is part of a tactic to cause disruption on the streets and instill fear in protesters.
However, a new tide has been on the offing, albeit from 2010. HarassMap is an initiative aimed at addressing sexual harassment. It uses a simple SMS-based system to enable victims and witnesses to anonymously report sexual harassment. The volunteer-based initiative is aiming to stop the social acceptability of sexual harassment in the North African country. It uses online and offline technology to invite women to speak out and also mobilize communities to stand up to harassers.
"You dial 6069 and then you type what happened and where," explains Rebecca Chiao, who co-founded HarassMap. "Then you send and in a minute or so you should get an auto-response." Reports of harassment are mapped out to highlight hotspots of sexual harassment where over time, HarassMap volunteers visit these areas as part of a community outreach program aimed at raising awareness and ending tolerance of these kinds of incidents.
In the whole of Africa, there were nearly 650 million mobile subscriptions in early 2012, more than in the United States or the European Union, making the continent the second fastest growing region in the world, after South Asia. Thus this is instrumental for initiatives like HarassMap that are tapping into this large numbers for Behaviour Change Communication.
It being a community based project, the volunteers ask community shop owners, police and anyone who frequents the streets to be watchful guardians of their neighborhoods. An Example of a reported case of sexual harassment include one from November 29, says:
"I was getting off the train from Cairo to Alexandria in Sidi Gaber train station. The train porter groped me three times while I was trying to get off the train with my suitcase. I challenged him the first time, and he pretended it was an accident, and then he did it two more times."
Shockingly, according to a 2008 survey of 1,010 women conducted by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, 98% of foreign women in the country and 83% of Egyptian women said they had been sexually harassed. This comes at the wake of the Delhi rape that saw a 23year old attacked and sexually assaulted by six men in a private bus that left the young lady’s 85% intestines removed following the heinous ordeal. This innovation would be pivotal if it was in the city (Delhi) that is also considered the “rape” city of the world that would inform young ladies of areas to avoid/ be extra vigil for instance or even areas to reinforce security.
Flash forward to March 4th 2013 and Kenya may have to think about having such measures in place. This is because in the 2007-2008 Post Election Violence, cases of sexual harassment of both women and men were reported but little measures were not put in place to avert a similar event from happening. What is worrying is that come 2013, there may be increased cases of sexual harassment if the security lapse in the country is anything to go by. One way would be to emulate our sisters in Egypt on how they are addressing this vice. Considering the high use of mobile phones as well as internet users, an application that seeks to create some sort of “hotline” to report sexual violence would be highly welcomed. By learning from HarassMap, we will have the advantage of picking what worked for the Egyptian setup and tailor it to the specific Kenyan needs. It can be done; this is the first step there. Let me know how and what you can or are doing towards ending the social acceptability of sexual harassment.
