How Egypt’s State Sanctioned Violence On Women Erodes Its Ancient Prestige

From Forbes:

In a year with landmark anniversaries of women’s rights, women’s safety is at utmost peril worldwide and endangered in Egypt under the current Saudi-backed Sunni, general-turned president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s rule. Hegazi [a 30-year-old Egyptian socialist, writer, and lesbian activist Sarah Hegazi] joins thousands of women victimized under Egypt’s military Islamic dictatorship since June 2014.

A 2013 U.N. report on women showed 99.3 percent of women and girls are subjected to sexual harassment in Egypt. A Reuters poll of experts on women's issues had Cairo voted as the most dangerous city in the world for women.

“There has been an upsurge of domestic violence and femicide–30 cases were reported in just two months,” says Rana Allam, former chief editor of Cairo’s Daily News Egypt (DNE) newspaper, a commentator on Middle East political affairs and human rights issues who serves as Senior Editorial Adviser and Strategic Communications Director to the International Civil Action Network (ICAN) and the Women Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) organization.

Allam explains how financial stress, rising unemployment, extreme heatwave and socio-economic conditions have escalated unleashed violence by men against women–more than culturally tolerated levels.

read more here @ Forbes