CAIRO — Following accounts of sexual harassment in Egypt's Tahrir Square earlier this week, during the inauguration of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, a group of Egyptian women will hold a protest rally on Saturday. The event titled “Walk like an Egyptian Woman” – has already attracted over 13,000 Facebook users who say they'll participate in the anti-sexual harassment protest, according to Ahram Online. Dina El-Shebba, the event's organizer, wrote on the Facebook page: “So if in India people protested against the gangrape of two girls, [then this] is the least we can do for the woman that was raped in Tahrir today along with all the Egyptian women who are subjected to violence every day.” Shebba's comments refer to last month's news of the gangrape and murder of two young girls, aged 12 and 14, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which drew widespread condemnation. On Tuesday, Sisi ordered his interior minister to do whatever it takes to combat sexual harassment and called for the decisive implementation of a new law that punishes convicted harassers with up to five years in prison, Ehab Badawi, a presidential spokesman told the Associated Press. The statement came after a series of sexual assaults on women during celebrations marking Sisi's inauguration, including a mass attack on a mother and her teenage daughter. Sisi also instructed Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim to honor a policeman who came to the teenager's rescue, Badawi added. On Monday, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said police had arrested seven men aged 16 to 49 as “they had (sexually) harassed a number of girls during the celebrations in the Tahrir area.” Three of those men have been charged with sexual assault under the threat of force and attempted rape, according to a statement issued by the nation's chief prosecutor, Hesham Barakat. On Wednesday, El-Sisi apologized in person to the woman who was sexually assaulted by a mob. State television showed a visibly moved El-Sisi visiting the woman in a Cairo hospital. “I have come to tell you and every Egyptian woman that I am sorry. I am apologizing to every Egyptian woman,”El-Sisi, a former military chief who ousted the country's first elected president nearly a year ago, said as he stood by the woman's bed. “Don't be upset,” he told her. President El-Sisi said it was unacceptable for sexual assaults to take place in Egypt and vowed to take “very decisive measures” to combat the crime. “I tell the judiciary that our honor is being violated on the streets and that is not right. It is not unacceptable, even if it is one case,” said the president, who spoke a day after he ordered a crackdown on sexual harassment, which he described as an “alien phenomenon” in Egypt. He also called for the restoration of the “real and moral” values of the country's streets. Last week, outgoing interim president Adly Mansour signed a law criminalizing sexual harassment. Those found guilty of the offense now face large fines and long jail terms. — Al Arabiya News
