I walked outside my building. I try not to let the stares I know I’m going to encounter when I walk down the street influence what I put on in the morning.
Today I was wearing beige pants, a brown three-quarter-sleeve top, and heeled sandals. If I was in New York City I might be strutting, but here, I was painfully conscious of the fact that my butt was exposed with no jacket to cover it - although I did strategically place my laptop bag so that it was mostly covered.
Anyway, usually there are guys that hang out on the stoop of my building because there’s a little mosque (more like a large prayer room) on the ground floor. By now, I recognize most of the guys that hang out there and they know I live in the building.
This morning there was a guy I didn’t recognize wearing this strange colorful hat but otherwise normal. I saw him do a double look at me as I walked away but tried not to let it bother me.
My new tactic when I walk down the street in the morning in my work clothes is to silently sing a song in my head to distract myself. This morning I was singing the “Star Spangled Banner” in an odd burst of patriotism – or because it reminded of me of my childhood when I didn’t have to worry about creepy guys staring at me.
I got to the end of my street, bought my usual Diet Coke, and went to the main street to find a cab.
As I was waiting, I noticed the same strange guy standing almost right next to me, staring straight at a place that no woman likes to be stared at.
I glared at him, which instead seemed to encourage him because he gave me this weird grin and looked me up and down.
Thankfully, a cab pulled up, I told him where I wanted to go and I got in.
And flicked the guy off before we pulled away.
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Usually, I try not to react when situations like that happen. A lot of my guy friends ask, what do you think you’re going to achieve?
But how can I not react every time and just accept it as part of the current culture in Cairo? I feel that acceptance is part of the problem.
Maybe yelling at a guy and calling him out on his behavior won’t change a whole country’s problem of sexual harassment, but lying down and excusing it won’t help either.
“People are poor, they’re sexually frustrated, they have no opportunities in life” are all reasons I’ve heard for the abnormal problem of harassment in Egypt.
But do you excuse a criminal anywhere because he’s had a hard life? No. Does it help you understand where the action is coming from? Yes.
If women never stood up for themselves in history, they would never have made the progress they have made in many countries. Yes, men need to take responsibility for their actions, but women also need to stand up for themselves and not be afraid to say: “enough is enough.”
