In Morsi's Egypt, Sexual Harassment of Women Continues

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

The 'Epidemic' of Sexual Harassment -
and Rape - in Morsi's Egypt

by Raymond Ibrahim
FrontPageMagazine.com
February 15, 2013

http://www.meforum.org/3450/egypt-rape-sexual-harassment

Since the "Arab Spring" came to Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood assumed power, sexual harassment, abuse, and rape of women has skyrocketed. This graph, which shows an enormous jump in sexual harassment beginning around January 2011, when the Tahrir revolts began, certainly demonstrates as much. Its findings are further supported by any number of reports appearing in both Arabic and Western media, and from both Egyptian and foreign women.

Hundreds of Egyptian women recently took to the streets of Tahrir Square to protest the nonstop harassment they must endure whenever they emerge from their homes and onto the streets. They held slogans like "Silence is unacceptable, my anger will be heard," and "A safe square for all; Down with sexual harassment." "Marchers also shouted chants against President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood group from which he hails," wroteAl Ahram Online.

The response? More sexual harassment and rapes.

Missing Peace: Women in the ‘Arab Spring’- Will they be free?

The following from Missing Peace is reposted with permission

Women in the ‘Arab Spring’- Will they be free?

by Sharon Shaked,  researcher Arab affairs Missing Peace

The Arab Spring, as it is officially called, has already managed to change history forever.
But the fact that the populations stood up against their tyrannical regimes and demanded reform and a better life is no guarantee that the situation in the Arab countries will really improve.

The historian and Middle East expert Bernard Lewis once blamed the backwardness of the Arab world and the lack of peace on the absence of women in important spheres of society.

The way women and minorities are treated in post-revolution countries is perhaps the best indication that the ‘Arab Spring’ does not mean that people will be free. On the contrary, women seem to be back to square one and that doesn’t bode well for the chances for democracy, modernization and peace.