Comments on: Egyptian Women Aim For Self-Defense

By: sarah.of.a.lesser.god

sarah.of.a.lesser.god — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:37:08 +0000

@Plum-Pie: In this particular study, 70% of the women who were being harassed said they were wearing headscarves. For a lot of men, it’s not even about modesty.

By: Plum-Pie

Plum-Pie — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:28:21 +0000

I heard this documentary on the World Service. Apparently when asked, a lot of guys said if they saw a woman being harassed who was ‘modestly’* dressed, they would intervene to help her. If she was ‘provocatively’* dressed, they would JOIN IN.

*Not a direct quotation.

By: jdregent

jdregent — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:43:57 +0000

I grew fond of spitting at harassers in Cairo. I’m awesome at cultural diplomacy you guys.

By: sarah.of.a.lesser.god

sarah.of.a.lesser.god — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:34:34 +0000

@JD: Yeah, the legal system is run by men and not doing women ANY favors. Most of the women taking these classes are young, and the hope seems to be that they are being vigilant about the need to protect themselves and make noise (literally and figuratively) about how this “harassment” is unacceptable. In lieu of protective laws, this is what these women can do for themselves.

By: jdregent

jdregent — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:24:18 +0000

Sorry, forgot to make my point. My point being, I definitely see the limits of physical self defense. But in the absence of legal defense, it may be all most Egyptian women have.

By: jdregent

jdregent — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:19:21 +0000

The law is interesting and I support its passage, but having lived in Egypt I think there are other issues that need addressing more urgently. There are extremely few womens shelters in major metropolitan centers in the country and all of the publicly funded ones (really only a handful of beds nation wide) work closely with police so that victims cannot be assured safety. Frequently police and staff will attempt to “patch up” family disputes instead of protecting victims. In the case of rape, in my experience many women reporting rapes to the police ended up threatened with charges of filing a false police report, fraud or the like. Crimes against women are just not taken seriously. In fact police corruption goes much further than just negligence of sexual and gender based violence and it seems to me that no laws will begin to remedy the daily violence women live with in Egypt until there is deep police reform. And that’s not really on Mubarak’s agenda. Speaking of Mubarak, most public spending on “womens issues” gets funneled through his wife Suzanne’s personal non profit. http://www.womenforpeaceinternational.org/EN/index.aspx. And, while I’m at it, Egypt is the second leading recipient of US foreign aid! So it does seem the US could have an impact on these issues if we took them seriously.

By: sarah.of.a.lesser.god

sarah.of.a.lesser.god — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:30:33 +0000

Yeah, I guess the point is that even if a woman/girl is not able to fend off her attacker, she is taking steps to recognize that this is unacceptable and fight back. It’s taking it out of the “invisibility” stage.

By: PhDork

PhDork — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:27:57 +0000

Karate or whatever else isn't a bad idea, but it's not really the solution. I love this post of Melissa McEwan's at Shakesville.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:05:11 +0000

“Harrassment” is definitely a euphemism. What they’re talking about usually involves men grabbing their breasts, trying to pull up their skirts, etc. I have studied karate for many years, and I think it would be excellent training both because these women can learn how to kick and punch but also because it teaches them to be confident and aggressive.

That said, a teenage girl is unlikely to be able to fight of a full-grown man, or more than one person, unless she is extremely experienced in martial arts. If I went to Egypt, I’d want to carry around a big ol container of mace.