CAIRO: Along Cairo's downtown Nile River promenade two police officers stand off to one side, point and begin to laugh. What they are pointing at is not funny: two women are in the throngs of being harassed, groped and assaulted by at least four people, Bikyamasr.com witnessed on Monday afternoon. The girls were screaming and attempting to push away the boys, somewhere in their late teens, from the area as they implored for them to stop. The police officers did nothing, only watched and laughed as the girls were being attacked. While the harassment on Monday was nothing like the women who have been stripped and beaten by mobs of men and the military over the past year, it highlighted what many women feared ahead of the current Eid el-Fitr holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the Islamic world's sunrise to sunset fast. Ahead of the month, Egyptian women lamented the lack of security on the country's streets as throngs of young boys take near control of central Cairo's roadways in motorcycles and gangs in the dozens. It is near chaos, and the few police officers stationed at “strategic” positions, do little to maintain order, as evidenced by Monday's incident, which was only one of many seen along the main road that runs parallel to the world's largest river. When asked why they didn't intervene, one of the officers told Bikyamasr.com “we are here to stop crimes, not these such things.” For the girls, one of whom was in tears and who had been grabbed on the chest and buttocks repeatedly by the three boys who followed her and her friend, they questioned why they thought this Eid would be different. “I don't know what we were thinking. This is just what living in Cairo is like now. We face harassment everywhere,” one of them said before they jumped in a taxi and fled away, leaving what they called “blood-thirsty boys” along the river's edge. Unfortunately for Egypt, sexual violence toward women is nothing new. June this year saw some of the worst attacks against women, with both foreigners and Egyptians reporting that they had been sexually assaulted in the square take place following the disbanding of Parliament. “I was walking in the square and was hoping to be part of the calls for the SCAF to leave power when a man behind me grabbed by butt and started saying disgusting things to me," one woman told Bikyamasr.com. “He asked if I was a slut and then swore at me when I yelled at him," she added. Others also reported being harassed on social media networks, highlighting the growing concern facing women in the country. Earlir in June, an anti-sexual harassment demonstration organized by over 20 Egyptian women's groups in protest against the recent escalation of assaults in Cairo's Tahrir Square was attacked about an hour and half after it began by unknown troublemakers. The participants reported being attacked by a mob of “thugs" who attempted to throw rocks and glass at them, but the clash was over quickly as volunteers securing the protest intervened to stop it. This was not the first time a women's rights march was attacked in Tahrir Square. Last March, and on International Women's Day, a march of tens of women was attacked by a cynical mob of men who did not like women protesting for more rights. Several female protesters were injured and one woman had to have 8 stitches in her head. Almost all of them were groped and sexually assaulted in the attack. A 2008 study by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights (ECWR) found that well over two-thirds of Egyptian women are sexually harassed daily in the country. The participants held signs that read “It is my right to protest safely," “Groping your sister is shameful for the square" and “Be a man and protect her instead of harassing her." “We are fed up," protester Mai Abdel Hafez, 24, told Bikyamasr.com. “We came to deliver a message that it is our right to protest and we will not avoid the square in fear of harassment," she said right before the attack took place. And on Monday, once again, that message was forgotten by yet more criminal activity, but under the watchful eye of the police, women once more suffered.
