Egypt's Sisi challenge: rising attacks on women

A video of a woman being sexually assaulted at inaugural celebrations for Egypt's new president has spotlighted a national epidemic, but activists believe that stopping such attacks will be difficult.

Graphic footage, apparently filmed on Sunday using a mobile phone, shows a mob of men surrounding the young woman, who was stripped of her clothes and badly bruised in the assault in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square.

The video, shared widely on websites including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, triggered outrage in Egypt and abroad.

"Execute them!" said Tuesday's front-page headline in pro-government Al-Watan newspaper.

"Sexual assaults and rapes by mobs are now part of reality. How far will things go? This is sexual terrorism," said Zeinab Sabet, a prominent activist with "Dignity Without Borders", a group battling sexual violence.

"This has been happening since 2012... The fact that it happened again (on Sunday) shows that the authorities aren't even bothered about us," she told AFP.

Washington said it was "shocked and appalled" by the "horrific" video footage and called on President Abdel Fattah AlSisi to take action.

"We urge the government to make good on its promise to do whatever it takes to combat sexual harassment and implement the new law that punishes convicted harassers," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Activists say at least nine cases of sexual assault were reported last week as revellers celebrated Sisi's presidential election victory.

One woman was burned by hot water after being stripped in Tahrir Square by three men who later also assaulted her daughter, the prosecutor's office said, adding the men had been detained.

Officials on Monday said police have also arrested seven men suspected of sexually assaulting women during Sisi celebrations.

Egypt, which until this month had no specific law on sexual harassment, last week approved penalties for such offences to include jail terms, fines or both.

But these amendments "were not enough... (as) the state was incapable of addressing such crimes in the absence of a comprehensive strategy," said a group of 25 Egyptian rights organisations.

On Tuesday, the presidency said Sisi had told interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim to "implement the law firmly" to prevent sexual harassment.

'Endemic levels' of abuse

A 2013 study by the United Nations said more than 99 percent of Egyptian women had been subject to some form of sexual abuse.

Women in the Arab world's most populous country said they were harassed regardless of whether they wore conservative Islamic attire or Western-style clothing.

Since the revolution that toppled long-time president Hosni Mubarak in 2011, the problem has worsened, with women now regularly attacked during rallies by groups of men in and around Tahrir Square, the epicentre of protests.

Between November 2012 and June 2013, some 250 cases of sexual assault or harassment by mobs, or rapes involving weapons, were reported during protests in Cairo, activists say.

Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Tuesday that Egyptian women face "endemic levels" of sexual violence.

It said that "the authorities have taken little action to stop or investigate violence against women, or to bring those responsible to justice".

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