No Sexual Harassment on Campus?

Social stigma affects women on campus, too, study shows

BY AMIRA SHERIF AND NOUR EHAB HANA

In early April, The Caravan began interviewing a random sampling of female undergraduate students in hopes of updating a December 2012 poll on sexual harassment.

In the latter poll, only eight percent of 281 respondents said they were subjected to sexual harassment on campus.

Most of the girls who experienced harassment were Egyptian, while 60 percent of those were not veiled. Two-thirds of these girls were subject to verbal harassment while the rest experienced physical harassment and only one was subject to both.

The December 2012 poll revealed that 57 percent of the girls who experienced harassment on campus decided to remain silent and not file a complaint.

But attempts to revisit the poll this month have revealed some startling results.

Many female students walked away as soon as they heard the questions and refused to participate in the poll. In the end, the sampling size had been so reduced that any figures would prove inconclusive.

What is conclusive, however, is that only 15 percent of those approached agreed to participate; all of them said they had not been sexually harassed on campus.

However, The Caravan has over the years documented cases of sexual harassment.

In April 2010, a case was filed against a member of custodial staff who was caught performing physical acts in front of female students in the library.

Two years later, a student took a staff member to court for similar indecent exposure, but she dropped the case after his family pleaded on his behalf.

In 2013, a Cilantro employee was fired for sexually harassing a female student and a month later a female member of AUC faculty accused a worker at TBS of making indecent gestures toward her.

TBS was closed pending an investigation, but the worker was later exonerated. He no longer works on campus, however.

Sexual harassment is neither a misunderstood nor alien concept for the AUC community.

Even before the above incidents went public, several events had already been held on campus to raise awareness of sexual harassment in Egypt.

As early as 2008, AUC was holding discussions and debates to examine why sexual harassment and violence was on the rise.

The School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS) brought experts from around Egypt to find solutions to this phenomenon.

“There is a disturbance in our social structure where values are diminishing,” said Samir Naim, a sociology professor from Ein Shams University at the time.

Fast forward to the post-January 25 period.

In March 2012, the Women Empowerment Club (WEC) held the first student debate activity among calls that the role of women would likely increase in years to come.

Moderated by the Chair of Public Policy and Administration, Jennifer Bremer, the first phase of the debate revolved around the topic “despite the rise of the Islamists, the Arab Spring will lead to a better situation for women”, while the other phases focused on sexual harassment and veiled discrimination.

In October 2013, and partially in response to the TBS incident, the AUC Faculty Services Office held the first sexual harassment awareness session for faculty members.

Office of Equal Opportunities and Affirmative Action (EOAA) representatives said that in the case of a sexual offense being committed, the first step that must be taken is to confront the harasser, and demand that this inappropriate behavior stops.

If the harassment continues, on-campus, the harassed party or a responsible witness should take the case to the EOAA office so that a formal investigation is launched.

However, if the harassment takes place off-campus, the EOAA representatives advised reporting such incidents to HarassMap or Tahrir Bodyguard, which are amongst the anti-sexual harassment initiatives recently established in Egypt.

At the time, Louise St-Laurent, the Faculty Services Coordinator, said that it was important for students to be exposed to a similar information session.

Despite various attempts to introduce a university-wide sexual harassment awareness orientation in the past couple years, including a Sexual Harassment Campaign carried out by Heya, an on-campus student initiative aimed at highlighting women’s issues, there has yet to be a regular orientation or information session provided for all members of the AUC community.

While more women are speaking out against sexual harassment and getting support from local organizations and grassroots initiatives, there is still considerable social stigma associated with the crime.

“When girls go to report such incidents at police stations, they [the police] treat the girls badly and they treat them with suspicion,” says Heba Kotb, an affiliate assistant professor of psychology and a certified sex therapist.

“This reaction needs to be changed so that people, whether they are the victim or witnesses, are more encouraged to report cases of sexual harassment when they occur.”

Associate Professor of Practice of Psychology Anne Justus agrees.

She believes that women need to speak up and protect their initiative right of not being attacked by a stranger and sexually harassed.

“They [women] are fed up,” said Justus.

The best way to fight sexual harassment is to have more people stand against it; raise their voices and demand accountability and justice.

The alternative – silence and complacence – will only exacerbate the prevalence of sexual harassment.

“Eventually, the harasser will not find any reaction to his unethical act and thus will continue in his actions since no one is standing against him [when] even the victims themselves are standing idle,” said Justus.