End Sexual Harassment in Egypt (Because it Sucks)

So today is "blog and tweet about sexual harassment day." I decided to write about my most traumatic sexual harassment experience.

A year and a half ago I was at a colleagues wedding and while standing outside the church (in an upper class neighborhood called Heliopolis) a guy came by grabbed my ass and walked away. In a split second reaction I ran after the guy (in heels), grabbed his shirt, and started screaming for the police.

I was extremely lucky because half of my office was right next to me and witnessed the incident and my reaction.

After about 15 minutes of me holding onto this guys shirt, a huge group surrounding us, several calls to the police (and them telling us the nearest station was extremely far away), the guy ripped himself from my grip and started running. One of my friends/colleagues ran after him, tackled him, enabling us to drag him to the nearest police station (which, incidentally, was around the corner).

The priests from the church had found out about the incident, saw the guy, and recognized him as someone many of the women at the church had complained about as being a serial ass grabber. Of course this stoked my desire to get the guy into some serious trouble.

Let me tell you, I really believe that the only way this problem will get better is if more women stand up and say something. But honestly, I don't know that I would want to go through this experience of dragging a guy to a police station again.

After an hour of yelling, crying, aplogizing, arguing, the guy's father was brought in to "aplogize." He's a lawyer, the father explained, and he's about to get married - if you press charges you'll ruin his life - please accept my aplogy so that he can go free(the father spoke English and was an engineer - assumption: he's educated). The father even went on to say his son had just been praying at the mosque down the street (not sure what his point was...).

Apparantely, in Egypt, if someone commits a crime against you, the person can be released without charges if you "forgive" that person. Victim's rights? Ha!

I didn't cave, and the next day me and my two friends who were my "witnesses" showed up at the district attorney's office to give our official statements.

First, the DA pretended that he didn't speak English forcing me to explain my side of the story in Arabic. This included a re-enactment of how the guy grabbed me using the bottom of a pencil holder. It wasn't until he was talking to one of my two witnesses who didn't speak any Arabic that he revealed he spoke English.

Then the guy was brought in wearing the same clothes from the night before. The DA told my native-Arabic speaking friend that the guy would probably spend 20 years in jail and be sodomized before asking my friend if he was really really sure that he saw what he saw.

It doesn't end there.

The next day I get a number that keeps calling me. I finally pick up and it's a woman on the phone. She didn't speak much English, so I handed the phone to a colleague. It was the finace of the guy I had just pressed charges against. She and her family wanted to meet me to "work things out." She was afraid this was going to ruin her fiance's life. And it was an accident she said.

How did they get my cell number? The friendly local police station gave the family the police report that had my phone number, address, and passport number. I moved in with a friend for a week in case they tried to show up. I also soon moved out of that apartment, partially from fear that the whole clan of sexual harassment promoters would show up at my doorstep. I'm assuming because they didn't, they managed to have him released.

Being grabbed by a stranger is one of the humiliating, degrading feelings I have ever encountered. It's horrible and depressing. It shatters your self-esteem and after the encounter with the guy's family and being accused of ruining his life, I felt guilt over something I did not do.

I haven't left Egypt over the harassment and when I eventually leave this won't be the cause for my departure. But harassment sucks and I hope and pray that Egyptian women can find the strength to continue standing up this enormous problem.



egypt, middle+east, arab+spring, women

Saudi Arabia: Please Stop Cutting Off People's Heads

Okay, when I first saw this headline my thought process went something like this: "Ugh I wish my fellow American citizens making America's foreign policy would see Saudi for what it is - more backwards and crazy then our "enemy" Iran. Wait...Amnesty International (AI) calls for Saudi to stop cutting off people's heads. That's kind of funny, in a really sick twisted kind of way."

It's funny because I'm imagining how this conversation would have gone:

AI: Hi Prince Blah, you know, we really need you to stop cutting off people's heads. It's a bit inhumane. Especially when it seems you're not even giving people a fair trial. I mean, beheadings? What are we in France circa 1800s?

Prince Blah: See, like the French, we presume guilt before innocence. Particularly if the person is foreign hired help. Or not a member of the royal family, which is basically the same thing. It's cheaper than throwing them in prison, while presuming guilt is cheaper than long costly trials.

AI: But ummm, I think I should point out that you guys have a crap load of money. I'm pretty sure money shouldn't be a concern. I should also point out that I am from Amnesty International so I need to inform you that cost should be of no object when it comes to the humane and just treatment of your fellow human beings.

Prince Blah: Yes but we just bribed our entire country into not deposing me and my family members. Actually, we bribed them into not even allowing the thought to enter their impoverished heads. The cost of dictatorships has sky-rocketed these days. The Saudi fed is predicting the inflation rate on maintaining absolute control is going to triple this year. Triple! Damn Arab Spring.

AI: We would strongly urge you to allow everyone access to due process, including the right to a fair trial and a refrain from cruel and unusual punishment. At the very least, you could use lethal injections. That is far more humane.

Prince Blah: I would argue that cutting off someone's head with a sword is far quicker, and if you don't have to drag someone through the emotional process of a trial, you save everyone a lot of time and effort. Plus, we allow victim's the option to be the one holding the weapon. How is that for closure?

AI: Hmmm.....

*I'm really not trying to make fun of Amnesty International, which is a fine institution.

saudi+arabia, middle+east, arab+spring, islam, human+rights

UAE: Closed for Criticism

Today the BBC reports that an Australian woman is suing her embassy after receiving bad advice about whether or not to report her drugging and rape by colleagues at a hotel she worked in located in the United Arab Emirates. She reported said rape and was jailed for eight months for "adultery and drinking without a license."

During the Egyptian revolution I spent three weeks in Dubai after being evacuated. I knew what most people know of Dubai - the land of finance, shopping, and an uber-conservative, but innovative, royal family. I had heard of the indoor skiing place, the Burg Al Khalifa that is currently the tallest building in the world, and the island in the shape of a palm. Cool right?

But being there, everything just seemed a bit fake. Standing next to the Burg Al Khalifa, you felt like the entire building was a mirage in the desert. And The Palm, as it is known, is really nothing special once you're actually on it.

Than there is the juxtaposition, if not outright hypocrisy, of the native "culture" with the 80 percent expat culture around it.

The Emirati women, who are covered head to foot including their faces with a niqab, compensate for their lack of individuality in dress by piling on thick gobs of make up and carrying the most expensive of hand bags.

Than there is the ubiquity of nannies following families around the malls. The standard Emirati family seemed to consist of husband and wife(s), kids, and nanny.

One day while riding the metro, whose metro stations are something out of a spaceport in Star Wars, there was a family like the one described above. Four kids all under the age of 10, including a newborn and a toddler. The husband was carrying the newborn, the nanny the toddler while the other two kids were sitting down fighting with each other. As soon as the newborn started to cry, the nanny got handed the newborn, the toddler got put in the stroller, all while the mother absently looked out the window.

I found it extremely odd that even though both parents were present, neither made a move to take care of their crying baby and instead just handed the baby for the nanny to tend to.

One night a few friends and I were going out to one of the hotel bars. A colleague whose brother lived in Dubai, cautioned us about taking a taxi home. He said that while it is legal to drink, it is illegal to be drunk and that there have been cases where a taxi driver picks up intoxicated customers and drives them directly to the police station where they are arrested and often deported.

Then of course there is the fact that there are no misdemeanors in the UAE - only felonies.

Taxi pulls over on the side of the road where he isn't supposed to be? Felony.

Default on your car loan? Felony.

Legally drink but illegally get drunk? Felony.

Getting raped? Felony...for the victim.

Sneeze too loud? Felony. Well okay maybe not sneeze too loud, unless you sneezed on a member of the royal family.

I'm also pretty sure writing a critical blog post would also be a felony.

Which brings me to another hypocrisy of Dubai in particular. They have marketed themselves as being a media hub - with all the major news agencies like BBC, CNN, and Reuters having huge hubs in a "media city." The hypocrisy? You can get jailed for being openly critical of the royal ruling family or for merely suggesting that the UAE should be a democracy as was seen in the the smallest attempt of the "Arab Spring." So yes, these media outlets are encouraged with the understanding that they toe the line. Real objective ya journalists.

My point is that it really pisses me off when people make these charged comments about the Arab World or Muslims or ask me whether I live in a "terrorist" country while Dubai gets coddled by the Western world as being some hub for internationalism. Dubai and the UAE are not promoting some internationalist mindset - they are a backwards ruling regime using the allure of making money to invite large international companies to populate the country in order for the UAE to not be oil-dependent. Smart, but selfish. Innovative, but oppressive. Open for business, but closed for criticism.

Saleh in His Own Words

All the news media is talking about whether I, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, will return to Yemen. My response? Do you think I would WANT to go back to that hell hole. I mean, come on, we're fast on our way to becoming the first country to run out of water (and no I don't mean because we left our bathtubs running for too long) and the entire population is addicted to qat. Have you ever tried to talk to someone high on qat? It's like talking to someone who is high on qat. Can you imagine ruling over a bunch of addicts? It's tough. But I just make sure they have enough qat to chew and it makes my job a lot easier.

Back to my current condition. Well yeah, I got a bit hurt. But to be honest, God must have been watching out for me because I was looking for an excuse to leave the country. Yes, of course I could have signed the GCC's offer to "hand over power." But what does that mean? I mean power isn't like a baton, this isn't a relay race. No self-respecting dictator, I mean president, would just up and flee the country. I truly deserve to give the Yemeni people more than that.

Which is why I'm so glad that I was hurt in the attack on my mosque. First, who couldn't be sympathetic to a guy who got shrapnel in his neck while praying? See, I was prostrating before God and God answered my prayers. You're probably thinking it's a bit crazy for me to be glad that I got injured but it gave me an excuse to flee, I mean leave, to Saudi Arabia to treat my injuries (no person who wants to come out alive would actually go to a Yemeni hospital - have you ever BEEN in one? you might come out with one less organ!). And now I have the perfect excuse to not go back - Yemen probably won't let me.

Of course I'm not telling anyone that I have no intention of going back, or that I have been praying for a way out. But I will negotiate with my dear friends the Saudis for my settlement bonus. Or I guess re-settlement bonus. There is no better friend to a dictator than a bigger dictator scared of it's faltering neighbor dictator. The Saudis are good to us ex (or soon to be ex) dictators. They get it. You let the people think they have power and then poof! Away your power goes.

I always knew if it came to this I could pull the arm of one of my friends like America or Europe. You think I fought Al Qaeda because I cared whether they were "terrorists?" How seriously can you really take a bunch of guys who hide out in the desert anyway? If it makes America happy for me to put on a little show of being all "ohhh the terrorist threat is soooo bad, ooooooh I'm scaaaaaared" then, whatevs.

This Saudi hospital really isn't bad. In hindsight I guess I could have gotten some money from them to build a hospital like this in Yemen. But then I wouldn't be able to come to Saudi. I guess it all works out in the end.

yemen, middle+east, arab+spring, islam, Saudi+Arabia

Video Interview with Egyptian Girl Subjected to "Virginity Check"

This girl is so brave for getting on camera and telling her story. Hopefully, her story will inspire other Egyptian women to stand up against sexual abuse and bring any other transgressions by the army to light.

egypt, middle+east, arab+spring, islam, women