(Cairo, April 5, 2021)
The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR) responded to the appeal of the “The Girl From Mit Ghamr”.
The incident goes back to December 2020, when a girl from Mit Ghamr was subjected to group/collective harassment. The Public Prosecution described the crime in its decision of referring the accused persons as “indecent assault by force and the threat“. This crime was caught on camera, as social media circulated videos of mass groups gathering and chasing one young woman.
The survivor described the violence that she was subjected to at the hands of seven perpetrators, who specifically pursued and assaulted her. She is still attempting to overcome this incident of violence, and its effects on her mental health until today.
The Public Prosecution’s decision to refer the perpetrators came with the following statement:
“Attacking the victim in public space, by pursuing her, following her, and making sexual comments and insinuations by words and actions, intending to obtain a benefit from her of a sexual nature, which is touching her body.”
However, the court recently ruled The acquittal of the seven individuals accused of harassment and collective indecent assault.
Both the Public Prosecution and the National Council for Women (NCW) have repeatedly called on girls and women survivors of sexual violence to report their complaints through the official channels, which is what the victim did, refusing to conceal the violence she had gone through, and in pursuit of her legal right to protection. She was not afraid of the successive threats she had received, directed at herself and her family members.
This call from both institutions is what drives the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR) to demand the Public Prosecution for a cassation appeal, in order to confirm its strict stance against sexual violence that Egyptian women are subjected to almost daily, and to encourage others to follow the same legal path that the survivor from Mit Ghamr took.
Nehad Abulkomsan, ECWR’s chairwoman, also demands:
- Side with the survivor, and achieving justice so that the survivor can overcome this crisis and achieve a sense of safety.
- Prompt issuance of a law to protect women from violence and the implementation of mechanisms in order to facilitate reporting, and protect victims and those who report a crime.
