"Egyptian women gaining their voice on harassment; Challenge abusers, force nation to be vigilant" by Jeffrey Fleishman and Noha El-Hennawy, Los Angeles Times | December 19, 2008
Yeah, thank God Jews and Americans never abuse their women. Oh, yeah, America the champ on domestic violence.
:-(
CAIRO - She was leaving the bus when the driver touched her in a way a stranger shouldn't.
"I screamed at him, 'You're an animal!' " said Shaimaa Abdel Rahman Aref, 28, a graduate business student. "I felt as if he was striking at my pride. I wish he had beaten me instead. It would have been much less humiliating, especially that I was veiled and not wearing anything that would arouse a man."
Aref took down the bus number and went to the police. But she found herself confronting a patriarchal society in which authorities are often indifferent to crimes against women and many families pressure their daughters and sisters to forgo justice rather than invite scandal. She said several police officers ridiculed her and her parents scolded her for breaching the line between humility and honor.
"They always put the blame on the girl," she said. Women such as Aref are beginning to challenge their abusers and force their nation to be more vigilant against sexual harassment....
Decades ago, before the migration of villagers from the Nile Delta and southern Egypt turned Cairo into a stifling metropolis of 17 million, public sexual harassment was less prevalent. It was considered not only an affront to a woman, but to her neighborhood. Offenders caught in the act were often beaten by bystanders; some had their heads shaved by police as a mark of shame.
I LOVE IT!! Let's hang a couple!
But that tightknit era has largely disappeared in a capital with sex on the Internet, poverty in the alleys and a police force regarded by many Egyptians as more concerned with protecting President Hosni Mubarak's regime than with guarding the rights of citizens.
See what we bring, folks!
Mistrust of the government and a sense of powerlessness at home have caused widespread disenchantment, especially for a generation of young men with limited opportunities....
And you know what that means: TERRORISTS!
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