Egyptian women and men are coming forward against sexual violence online. While state institutions encourage survivors to speak up, other voices are being silenced. A commentary about a fundamental, yet confusing moment of Egyptian feminism.
Women across Egypt have been speaking out against sexual violence and sharing their testimonies on various social media platforms. This has prompted a public debate about violence against women in Egypt, state accountability, impunity for perpetrators and how community silence around sexual violence contributes to the spread of violence against women.
Coming forward
On July 1, 2020, allegations about Ahmed Bassam Zaki, a 21 year old Egyptian university student, started circulating on social media. Several women came forward anonymously accusing him of rape, sexual violence, intimidation, and blackmail over the course of several years and in various locations.
The testimonies also implicate well known institutions such as The American University in Cairo (AUC) – where Zaki used to be a student – and hold them accountable for not taking necessary measures to support survivors. This almost instantly prompted a public discussion about gender-based violence with hundreds of women and men publishing their testimonies on different social media platforms.
One of the important facets of this case is that the perpetrator is from an upper-class family and attended prestigious schools and universities. This shattered the widespread misconception that gender-based violence only occurs within the lower classes, or that women´s class privileges can shield them from violence. On the contrary, many of the testimonies make it obvious that even among the rich and highly-educated in society, survivors were pressured by their families to remain silent. Zaki, who is currently in pretrial confinement, used this pressure to further blackmail his victims.
Thus, silence around sexual violence is now finally acknowledged in mainstream debate as a tool that helps perpetrators escape justice and makes women and men more prone to gender-based violence. Several important talk shows discussed the case and Egypt´s Dar al-Ifta, an important religious authority, issued a statement against sexual harassment calling for the state to take action against perpetrators.
Many calls circulated encouraging women and men to speak up about the violence they have experienced and urging families of survivors to believe and support their sons and daughters instead of pressuring them into hiding their experiences. Among the most prominent calls was one by The National Council for Women (NCW) asking women to come forward and to use the mechanisms of the NCW that offer support to survivors. The NCW´s involvement in the case calls for a discussion about engaging with state institutions as it demonstrated an inspiring yet challenging moment in the history of the Egyptian feminist movement.
Engaging with the state
There is a long-standing debate in feminist circles around the world about engaging with the state in women´s rights issues. As R.W. Connell reiterates “The state is historically patriarchal, patriarchal as a matter of concrete social practices. State structures in recent history institutionalize the European equation between authority and a dominating masculinity; they are effectively controlled by men; and they operate with a massive bias towards heterosexual men's interests.” (Connell 1992, P. 535).
However, in the past women were able to win seats in governments, lobby for legislations in their favor and call for state accountability especially on violence against women. Meanwhile, states have been actively co-opting women´s rights movements through state feminism which is, simply put, a form of feminism sanctioned by the state that promotes a narrow vision of women´s rights and does not challenge government agendas. Rather, state feminism operates in accordance with the state´s envisioned role for women which is usually embodied in national institutions.
For instance, national women´s councils are outspoken when it comes to sexual harassment but silent on issues of women political prisoners or problematic state discourses. This is not specific to Egypt or other WANA countries. It is a phenomenon occurring in most state institutions. Given all of this, some feminists still choose, if possible, to engage with the state to gain ground, attain winnings for the women´s rights movements, or at least show the hypocrisies of progressive state discourses.
Nevertheless, it is crucial to bring into light that women in Egypt continue to be targeted and imprisoned under the guise of protecting “Egyptian family values”.
Digital policing of women
It is inevitable that backlashes arise when culture opens up. When a gender regime is threatened it can resort to all sorts of violence to defend the status quo. In this framework, the Cairo Economic Court sentenced two social media influencers to two years imprisonment and 16,000 Euros in late July, based on the controversial 2018 cybercrime law. The court argued that the videos which the two women had uploaded to TikTok violate “Egyptian family values” and incite debauchery.
Many Egyptian women who use social media feel threatened by this verdict as they might now be easily targeted by this ambiguous legal article simply for posting a personal video or photo. Women in Egypt are already subject to different kinds of violence and online bullying, and now there is also the threat of legal persecution because of online content.
More importantly, this verdict sends a mixed message to women and to society as a whole. At a time when voices are speaking out against the justification of rape and other forms of sexual violence based on women´s attire or conduct, such a verdict criminalizes women and creates an environment that endorses violence against women who do not adhere to certain gender norms. To counter this, Egyptian feminists started a creative campaign on different social media platforms with the hashtag: #بعد_اذن_الاسرة_المصرية loosely translated to ``Pardon your Egyptian family values`` with an online petition calling for the release of all women arrested.
Demands within the opposition
At the same time, the focus should not be only on the state. As survivors´ testimonies started to circulate, many women have spoken out about sexual harassment and sexual assault they have experienced within progressive circles; this is about sexual violence from prominent activists running established non-governmental organizations inside and outside of Egypt, organizations which are usually regarded as allies of feminist struggles. This took the discussion to another level, about the responsibility of these organizations towards their beneficiaries, the lack of sexual harassment policies, impunity, and the hypocrisy of those claiming to defend human rights who are themselves perpetrators of violence.
Holding the opposition movement accountable to women and their rights has been one of the demands of the Egyptian feminist movement of which I am a part, especially after the 2011 revolution. Women have wanted to capitalize on their involvement in the protests and have called for more rights. However, the answer was usually a disappointing “It is not the right time for women´s rights, democracy should be established first”. Despite this, it has always been clear for feminists that there will be no democracy without women´s rights.
At the moment, women are at last revolutionizing leftist circles and no longer feel obliged to cover for their abusive comrades. It is a reckoning that is long overdue and will most likely have far reaching consequences.
Despite all odds: Women organizing
In the light of all of this, feminists, women´s rights activists, survivors and progressive Egyptian women inside and outside Egypt are trying to organize online and offline to share experiences, capitalize on the current discussion and plan the way forward. Nevertheless, they come up against the limitations of digital organizing and social media, such as: the difficulty of maintaining the anonymity of survivors and their testimonies; the threat of defamation lawsuits when speaking up publicly about perpetrators; the difficulty of litigating sexual violence cases inside and outside of Egypt; and an ever-shrinking public sphere in Egypt where feminist organizations can operate, such as Nazra for Feminist Studies whose appeal against an asset freeze imposed on the organization on 2017 has been rejected last July.
Yet, in the face of all these difficulties and amid a global pandemic, Egyptian women are finding their voice and the courage to address an old wound that never stopped bleeding. What is truly inspiring is that these discussions are no longer constrained to feminist circles: they have finally made it to mainstream Egyptian society and women are feeling more empowered than ever to speak out against violence that we, Egyptian women, have all at some point in our lives experienced or witnessed.
To all the survivors of sexual violence: I see you, I hear you, I believe you, I stand with you, and I am evermore in awe of your perseverance and bravery.
