News:

Dunia Albert, a member of Egypt's anti-harassment movement, has said this week that the Egyptian law is not the reason behind the increase of sexual harassment in the street but rather it is the silence of girls and women who suffer from the harassment.

Albert explained that a survey of 2,334 girls in 2013 found that 99.3 per cent of women in Egypt have been subjected to verbal or physical harassment and 61.3 per cent of the harassers were school or university students. Albert said that 91 per cent of women in the study said they did not feel safe in the street.

Comment:

One argument cited by the West is that sexual harassment in Egypt occurs due to the increasingly Islamic view of women, that Islamic men believe that women were ‘asking for it' due to the way the dressed and behaved. The BBC quotes one young Egyptian teenager, "If the girls were dressed respectably, no-one would touch them," one of them said. "It's the way girls dress that makes guys come on to them. The girls came wanting it - even women in niqab."

This view is similar to sexual harassers all over the world, who act purely on their desires, whether it be a disgusting comment, grope or rape. Rather than being spurred on by a religious belief, sexual harassment is an issue that knows no race or creed, as in the UK 45% of women have experienced some form of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. It is clear that the common thread of thought amongst men and women who abuse is the view that they can act as they wish, according to any impulse or feeling as they are free to act as they wish.

Therefore the secular mentality out of which is born the freedom to do what one pleases, is at the root of this drive and this view is free to fester in Egypt due to lack of enforcement on the government level, against harassment. Furthermore, in a society where most men are young, poor, jobless and largely powerless, it is common to find a rise in many types of antisocial behaviour. With a largely young population dealing with a current 12.4% unemployment who are consequently unable to marry, leads to a frustrated male population. Such discontentment leads to a fractured dysfunctional society.

Islam does not condone sexual harassment in any way, rather creates a society that encourages the opposite. The problem of sexual harassment is down to a number of factors which Islam would solve from root to tip. Firstly the fundamental view of the woman in an Islamic society is based around hadiths such as: «الدُّنْيَا مَتَاعٌ، وَخَيْرُ مَتَاعِ الدُّنْيَا: الْمَرْأَةُ الصَّالِحَةُ» ‘The world and all things in it are precious, but the most precious thing is a virtuous woman.' (Muslim)

Such evidences, shape the view that men, society and all of its components must have towards women; that they must be valued for their character, elevated for their righteousness. This not only does away with any view that the woman is a cheap object to treat as one pleases, but instills respect and honor in the view that society has towards her. This view is then maintained through a multitude of rules and laws, which ensure the honor, and respect of women is never eroded.

The social system has a zero tolerance approach against the mistreatment and violence against women. It does not even allow anyone to exploit her, whether it's sexualizing her on a billboard or throwing lewd jokes at her in the workplace. There is a harsh punishment for anyone who even accuses a woman falsely of a sexual act, let alone lay the blame upon women in general that they were ‘asking for it'. The organization of men and women in an Islamic society additionally ensures that the sexual instinct is taken out of the public sphere to avoid any such problems through the rules of segregation, hijab and lowering the gaze.

The woman's right to vote and be active in politics, is never shunned and she is never intimidated from carrying this out. Rather the Islamic society would encourage her to be politically active, as this is an obligation upon her set by Islam.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
by Aisha Hasan