EGYPT - Women in Tahrir Square

From a male dominated, chauvinistic, society.  Men that are afraid and bullies, who think women are possessions.

"In Tahrir Square, Recent Protests Have Been Scene of Rampant Sexual Assault" PBS Newshour 7/11/2013

Excerpt

HARI SREENIVASAN (Newshour):  Now to Egypt.

Among the demonstrators who jam Tahrir Square every day are hundreds of women.  They face a very disturbing threat from gangs of men who sexually assault female protesters.

Lindsey Hilsum of Independent Television News reports from Cairo.

And a warning:  You may find some of the details and the images in her story distressing.

LINDSEY HILSUM:  Such sweet boys full of energy and fun.  They have just been chasing a young woman up the street.  The interviewer asks them why.

"If a lady is respectable, no one will harass her," says a kid in red.  The others pile in.  Why do they wear short skirts or tight trousers?"

"Some young women, when we flirt with them, they smile."

That's how it starts.  This is how it ends.  A mob attacks a young woman on the corner of Tahrir Square.  We have disguised her identity.

This is one of more than a hundred assaults in Tahrir Square during last week's demonstrations.  This is the very place.  Women still come to the square, but it's dangerous.

This corner of Tahrir Square has become notorious for attacks on women.  I can only come here tonight because it's almost empty because of Ramadan and people are praying.  And I have got a whistle to protect me and an alarm and a whole crew of people around me.  That's not the case for many women who come here.

And the most horrific thing I have heard is that these attacks are planned, and, sometimes, women think that the men coming for them are trying to save them from being assaulted, but in fact they take them away and attack them again.

A long darning needle.  Janet Abdel Aleem and her group of activists distribute the needles to women for self-defense.  She and her colleague Nada were assaulted in Tahrir Square last November.