4º annotation

Is Veil an effective measure to prevent harassment?

Jessica Villasenor

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For this fourth and last annotation I will continue the thematic in third annotation in order to give completely support to my argument. I already present the point of view from women and religion perspective to a certain extent, now it is time to inquiry into the men’s reasons.

My principal resource this time is “Clounds in Egypt’s sky”, a pioneer research of the harassment phenomena in Egypt done by The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights in 2008. It was realized in response to the increase number of complaint in harassment and rapes and the lack of similar studies. Conclusions from this research lead us to the relations between the veil and the crisis of identity in Egypt.

First at all, it is important to mention some statistics. Unemployment in Egypt has been increasing since the 90s, it reached 15% in men younger than 35 in 2012 (Wali, 2011, p. 1). This means a broad segment of male population with no job, however, the unemployment and the economical problems are far from being the main reasons for this situation. As Stack (2008) accurate exemplifies it, this so called waiting generation “has nothing to fill their lives except TV and the Internet... Egyptians watch American actors do[ing] things that they cannot, like date or have premarital sex…” (p. 1).  These men see behavior that they cannot do because it is forbidden in their society.  This contradiction has lead to the crisis of identity in Egypt.

The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (2008) shows that the common age for harassers is 19-24 years. This age is the same range of age for the majority of unemployment man (waiting generation). The reasons to harass a woman are the belief that harassment works to satisfy the repressed sexual desires, make them feel more masculine, more confident and stronger.

 

Photo: Egyptian Center for Women's Rights (2008)

The above explained are the reason for men to incur into harassment, however, ¿what is the relation of these factors with the veil? Religious campaigns have claimed, and we may incorrectly assume that the veil may be an effective shield for women, the research and the deeds prove that statement to be false. The study reveals that there is no connection between the two. For example, we may think that a girl dressed like picture 2 or 4 would be a more recurrent target, but contrarily it is not. The majority of harassed women wear like figure 1.  

The relation between the variables is clear, and the statistical support makes my argument more reliable. It is a pity that not even the veil can help women in Egypt to be safer from harassers, but it  only confirms that the problems is deeper that what we think and the solution for this crisis of identity can only be reached through long terms restructuring society programs.

References

Rights, T. E. (2008). Clouds in Egypt's sky. Cairo: The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights.

Stack, L. (23 de september de 2008). In Egypt, sexual harassment grows. The Christian science monitor.Rertrieved from http:// www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2008/0923/p07s02-wome.html

Wali, S. (1 de February de 2011). Egypt finds freedom-From sexual harassment. ABC News. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/egypt-protest-sexual-.harassment-women-drops-witnesses/story?id=1280463?page=2page=2#. UMNKMHfkLE4