Why are we being sexually harassed … by other women?

“Psst.” I heard the sound coming from behind me as I was walking down the street with a few other girls.

“Psst,” repeated the person following our steps. I remembered the ‘rule’: don’t look and don’t answer. In other words, be completely passive and don’t dare stand up for yourself because taking action would ‘only make it worse’.

There was something different with the incessant sound. It was different than the one I’ve known all-to-well. “Psst,” persisted our follower.

Infuriated, I gave up and turned around.

The sound originated from one of three primary school girls who were walking, hand in hand, and laughing at our discomfort. My facial expression of the purest of fury failed to remove the smirk off our little harasser’s face. She had succeeded in annoying the big girls walking in front of her and no one can take that away from her.

I think the girls were around 10 years old.

Minutes later, my friends and I, happened to be in front of the Maadi Metro Station in Road 9. It was around noon, and students who had been just released from their schools flooded the street. One female high school student while passing by us, shouted “Oh wow, such femininity,” in sheer laughter.

Twice in one day, we were verbally harassed by women.

Sexual harassment in Egypt has reached a new extent where it is no longer limited to male offenders.

Needless to say that the women who engage in such abuse happen to be a small minority – one could even find an argument that the aforementioned may not be harassment. But the concept remains, that women publically abuse other women for their physical appearance.

There are some women who would be in the company of men and silently watch as they verbally harass female passersby.

A friend of mine told me of an incident where she became aware of men offending her only from hearing girls laughing at their insulting remarks.

I see these women as accomplices in sexual harassment.

It has reached a point where some women offend their female equivalents while others express their approval of men’s harassment by rewarding such abuse with laughter.

Just as some are fighting for awareness through creating organizations and taking initiatives, others are adding to the problem. How can we expect to fight harassment when those you are fighting for – and with – have joined the opposing team?

These Egyptian women have not only accepted the reality of sexual harassment but they have fallen into it. They have given in to being objectified by men, that they too view themselves as sex objects and so could rightly be harassed. The infamous “she was asking for it” excuse, naturally, applies here too. These women do not have a full comprehension of their worth and potential. They succumb to the dogma of inferiority as constituted by the sexist men that they are surrounded by.

Hope hangs by a thread but it is not lost yet. I think, tackling Egypt’s endemic sexual harassment problem, is not only by teaching men to respect women, but to teach women to respect themselves and each other.

Huda Ramzy