The training and consultancy center Mosawaa has announced a new initiative to fight sexual harassment in Egypt, seeking to change attitudes toward harassment while addressing issues of discrimination and violence against women.
The initiative, which aims is to promote the safety of Egypt’s women and girls, has been aptly named “Aman”, which translates as "safety”.
The launch has been timed to coincide with Eid al-Adha, a four-day public holiday associated in previous years with a spike in sexual attacks across Egypt.
A key element of the Aman initiative is awareness campaigns to encourage men to stop sexually harassing women in the street, an ongoing issue of major concern for the nation's female population.
The initiative will also encourage women to report sexual harassment or violence every time it happens, thereby ensuring that harassment does not go unchallenged or unpunished in future.
According to Mosawaa, the new initiative will work to support civil associations and promote peaceful assemblies in every Egyptian governorate with a view to combatting sexual harassment. Media platforms of various sorts will be used to help change the way women are percieved by society as a whole, said the NGO.
The initiative has its own Facebook page on which events and information are shared, along with a hotline number for people to call.
The Aman initiative's logo and hotline number, taken from their Facebook page
According to Mosawaa, statistics supplied by non-Egyptian NGOs show that to 68 percent of Egyptian women have experienced sexual harassment on the street to some degree or other.
Another study, conducted by United Nations Fund for Gender Equality and the National Center for Planning, found that 99.3 percent of Egyptian women have been sexually harassed at least once.
The first wave of Aman events will take place in September, during the Eid al-Adha holiday.
