Egypt: Phone Stalking

From BBC News:

It is well known that sexual harassment is a pervasive problem in Egypt, from touching to lewd and abusive cat calls.

But it seems there is another phenomenon that goes largely unreported, phone stalking. With the advance of modern technology a large number of women complain they receive the unwelcome and relentless attention of men they have never met.

Most of the harassment - calls and texts - are from young men who ring numbers at random, and often the conversations are fairly commonplace. But occasionally they can lead to something more sinister.

In fact in a survey last year of 2,000 women by the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights, 83% said they had encountered some form of sexual harassment - 23% said they were receiving obscene phone calls. But even so, statistics on how widespread this is are hard to come by.

Nonetheless there are those who believe phone stalking is symptomatic of a bigger issue.

And yet all too often the harassment goes unreported. Either women don't believe it will be taken seriously or they don't want the added frustration of the red tape.

Egyptian Women

Excerpts from Marlene Phillip's article in the Phoenix Liberal Examiner: Egyptian Women - Image vs Reality

"According to an article in the March 30 issue of Time, more than 80% of Egyptian women wear the hijab, loosely defined as a head covering or modest dress. Based on my observations during a recent visit to Egypt, I would not agree with that figure; it is too low. Virtually every Egyptian women I saw covered her hair completely, most wore loose fitting clothes, and a smaller but surprisingly significant number donned a full burqa.

When seen in person, the difference between the woman on the Egyptian street and what is portrayed by the Egyptian media and marketers is so dramatic it leads to many questions."