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Taharrush jamaʿi (Template:Lang-ar taḥarrush jamāʿī, lit. "collective harassment"; Egyptian pronunciation taḥarrush gamāʿī) or taharrush gamea, is a arabic term for gender group harassment. Often known simply as taharrush, the assault usually happens under the protective cover of large gatherings, typically protests, rallies, concerts and public festivals. It has been referred to in Egypt as the "circle of hell."

Terminology

During the Egyptian constitutional referendum in 2005, women reported cases of being harassed by police personnel and hired agents provocateurs during demonstrations and rallies. Taharrush then started to be used as a political weapon. On the Eid al-Fitr holiday in October 2006, a crowd of young men harassing women in the inner city after they had been denied access to a local cinema gained notoriety in Egyptian social media. After that incident, taharrush or taharrush al-ginsy came to refer specifically to sexual harassment in public places.

The phenomenon of group sexual assault in Egypt gained prominence outside the country in February 2011 when Lara Logan, a reporter for the American network CBS, was sexually assaulted and beaten by hundreds of men in Tahrir Square, Cairo, while reporting on the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.

The term taharrush came to widespread attention in 2016 after women in several German cities, particularly Cologne, reported that they had been sexually assaulted by large groups of men during New Year's Eve celebrations. The German Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Crime Office) mentioned taharrush gamea in an internal report after a conference with the various Länder police forces. An article about the report in Die Welt on 10 January 2016 made international news.

Prevalence

Overview

The Institute of Development Studies (IDS), a research charity affiliated with the University of Sussex, has called for research into politically motivated sexual assault in times of political change. It proposes country studies in, for example, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen.

Parallels have been drawn with Eve teasing, and with the mob of youngsters that harrassed women and couples during the Puerto Rican Day Parade attacks in 2000.

Egypt

In 2008 a local movie maker, Noha Rushdie, was the first woman to win a court case against a molester. Movies have some importance as a medium, because they allow the depiction of current events and topics that will be understood by viewers in Egypt who are unable to read. Ihkî yâ Shahrâzâd (Les Filles du Caire, from Yusrî Nasr Allâh, in 2009) and 678 (Arabic: فيلم ٦٧٨ - feelm sitta seba' thamaniyya) in 2010 were among the first to show taharrush in Egypt in cinemas.

Group assault,
Cairo, Eid al-Adha, January 2006.
(The women are visible from c. 0:32 mins.)

678 (the number of a bus line) caused some controversies in Egypt but got an award at the 2010 Dubai International Film Festival and has been published in various countries (e.g. 2012 as Kairo 678 in Germany). It depicts three women of various backgrounds: the first uses a knife to defend herself against attacks, the second is being harassed in a group in the presence of her husband, who is not able to help her. Her marriage fails afterwards. The third one activates a group of people to help her against a single molester. While her filing of a report to the police is being blocked by officers, she is invited to appear on a TV show, as she was the first Egyptian woman to file a report for harassment.

The Egyptian Revolution of 2011 saw the use of sexual harassment as a means of denying women access to public spaces and rallies. It also saw the growth of a counter-movement by NGOs and women's organizations.

Some taharrush-related incidents made national news in Egypt and gained notoriety on social networks. After 9 March 2011, a day after International Women's Day, some feminist activists arrested during a rally on Tahrir Square were forced to have their virginity inspected. Mobile phone videos like the Blue Bra or Tahrir Girl, (Sit al Banat in Arab), an unknown person covered in an abaya and undressed in Cairo went viral. The phenomenon first came to the attention of Western media in 2011 when a prominent female foreigner, CBS reporter Lara Logan, was assaulted by hundreds of men in Cairo's Tahrir Square during her reporting of the Egyptian revolution.

During the period of the Mohammed Mursi government, the incidents became even more violent. On the eve of the second anniversary of the Egyptian revolution, on 25 January 2013, a gathering of women survivors of such treatment met at Café Riche (Talaat Harb close to Tahrir square) and decided to start a larger political initiative. They gained support from a variety of NGOs and political parties against the use of sexual harassment by the police forces. Lamis Elhadidy, a TV anchorwoman and political analyst, used the topic in a TV transmission in February 2013.

A first attempt to change the penal law, supported e.g. by Amr Hamzawy failed. The ruling party held women participating in public rallies personally responsible for such incidents. In March 2013 the Muslim Brotherhood provided a strongly worded statement against the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women as a danger for Egyptian cultural norms and society. The massive participation of women in the public rallies was one of the reasons for the controversies.

After an incident in 2014, when a woman at the Cairo University College of Law was harassed by a large group of men and had to be escorted to safety by the police, the Egyptian penal code was changed.

Europe

Pointing out that European cultures lack a word for taharrush gamea, Josef Joffe, publisher-editor of Die Zeit, defined it in January 2016 as: "a group-grope where young men encircle women to jeer, molest and rob them," and argued that the "acculturation (of immigrants) into the strict sex codes of the West takes years."

Taharrush gamea was first widely reported in Europe after it took place in Cologne and other German cities during New Year's Eve celebrations in 2016. Group attacks were reported in Berlin, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Stuttgart. Up to 1,000 men were said to have surrounded women outside Cologne's main train station. By 18 January 2016, 838 people in Germany had complained to police; these included 497 women who alleged sexual assault, three of which were rapes. Women made similar complaints in Kalmar, Sweden; Salzburg, Austria; Zurich, Switzerland; and Helsinki, Finland.

In Germany a North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Justice report to the parliamentary committee of the Interior adopted the term taharrush gamea from the Bundeskriminalamt internal report and used it to describe a form of group sexual harassment that takes place in crowds. The report compared the 2016 New Year's Eve sexual assaults to incidents in Cairo's Tahrir Square during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. The perpetrators were said to have been "almost exclusively" "North African and Arab" recent arrivals. One difference between the Tahrir Square and German attacks is that the former took place during a political rally, not a party, and some of the Cairo attacks may have been state-sanctioned.

Finnish migration authorities informed Helsinki police of planned collective sexual harassment before New Year' Eve 2016. Similar to Cologne, a large crowd (of about 20,000, including about 1,000 refugees) gathered around the Helsinki Central station and the Senate square in Helsinki. The police were present with a massive force and arranged for a dozen preliminary arrests in refugee asylums. Compared to Cologne, the event passed without larger incidents; a further dozen men were arrested during the night but were released the next day.

See also

• HARASSmap
• Operation Anti Sexual Harassment
• Rape culture
• Sex gangs
• We Are Sthlm sexual assaults
• 678 (film)

References

1. ^ Lutz, Martin (10 January 2016). "Das Phänomen "taharrush gamea" ist in Deutschland angekommen" [The phenomenon "taharrush gamea" has arrived in Germany]. Die Welt.
2. Fathi, Yasmine (21 February 2013). "The circle of hell: Inside Tahrir's mob sexual assault epidemic", Al-Ahram.
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference harass was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. Hassan, Rasha; Shoukry, Aliyaa; Nehad, Abul Komsan (1998), Clouds in Egypt’s Sky: Sexual Harassment: From Verbal Harassment to Rape (PDF), UNFPA Egypt (ECWR Report) Quoted at Abdelmonem 2015a harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAbdelmonem2015a (help)
5. ^ Anderson, Robert G. (1 May 2011). "Lara Logan breaks silence on Cairo assault". CBS 60 Minutes. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)(transcript)
6. ^ "Bericht des Ministeriums für Inneres und Kommunales über die Übergriffe am Hauptbahnhof Köln in der Silvesternacht", Ministerium für Inneres und Kommunales des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, 10 January 2016 (pp. 1–15), p. 15.
7. ^ Ehrhardt, Christoph (15 January 2016). "Gewalt gegen Frauen in Ägypten: Wo sexuelle Belästigung Alltag ist". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
8. ^ Tadros, Mariz (2013). Politically Motivated Sexual Assault and the Law in Violent Transitions: A Case Study From Egypt. Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. p. 26. Pdf.
9. Abdelmonem 2015a, p. 26 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAbdelmonem2015a (help), references to Amar 2011; Ilahi 2008
10. ^ Mouline, Nabil (December 2013). "Un ticket pour la liberté" [Ticket to freedom: Egyptian cinema, from denunciation to protest (2001-2010)]. Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée (in French). 134. Editions Edisud: 131–144. doi:10.4000/remmm.8297.
11. ^ Abdelmonem 2015a, p. 26 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAbdelmonem2015a (help)
12. Padania, Sameer (23 November 2006). "Egypt: Cairo's women speak out against violence", Global Voices Online.
13. Mohamed, Abul Soud (December 27, 2010). "Citing potential harm to men's 'sensitive spots,' activist urges film ban". Al-Masry Al-Youm. Al-Masry Al-Youm for Journalism and Publication. Archived from the original on February 9, 2011.
14. Viktoria, Kleber (August 17, 2011). "Frauen in Ägypten: Mit Crowdsourcing gegen sexuelle Übergriffe" [Women in Egypt: With crowd-sourcing against sexual attacks]. Zeit Online (in German). Zeit-Verlag Gerd Bucerius. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
15. Langohr, Vickie (February 2015). "Women's Rights Movements during Political Transitions: Activism against Public Sexual Violence in Egypt". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 47 (1). Cambridge Journals: 131–135. doi:10.1017/S0020743814001482. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
16. Compare Anon (January 26, 2013). "Testimony from a Survival of Gang Rape on Tahrir Square Vicinity (blog post)". nazra.org. Nazra for Feminist Studies. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
17. Abdelmonem, Angie (10 November 2015). "Reconsidering de-politicization: HarassMap's bystander approach and creating critical mass to combat sexual harassment in Egypt". Égypte/Monde Arab. 13. Centre d'études et de documentation économique, juridique et sociale. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
18. Tadros, Mariz (2014). Reclaiming the Streets for Women’s Dignity: Effective Initiatives in the Struggle Against Gender-Based Violence in Between Egypt’s Two Revolutions. Institute of Development Studies with the University of Sussex. IDS Evidence Report 48. quoted at Abdelmonem 2015b harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAbdelmonem2015b (help) Pdf.
19. ^ Lekas Miller, Anna (8 August 2013). "Exploiting Egypt's Rape Culture for Political Gain". The Nation.
20. Nowaira, Amira (18 March 2013). "The Muslim Brotherhood has shown its contempt for Egypt's women". The Guardian.
21. Abdelmonem 2015a, p. 34 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAbdelmonem2015a (help), referring to Masr, Mada (18 March 2014). "Victim Blamed After Sexual Assault at Cairo University". Mada Masr.
22. Joffe, Josef (18 January 2016). "Germany's Road to 'No We Can't' on Migrants". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
23. ^ "How widespread were New Year's Eve assaults?", BBC News, 16 January 2011.
24. "Cologne attacks: first arrest over New Year's Eve sex assaults ", The Guardian, 18 January 2016.
25. Staff writer (11 January 2016). "Cologne attackers were of migrant origin - minister". BBC News.
26. dpa (8 January 2016). "Sex-Übergriffe an Silvester auch in Finnland" [Sex-attacks on New Year's Eve in Finland, too]. Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine (in German). Retrieved 12 January 2016.

• Arabic words and phrases
• Sexual harassment
• Crimes related to the European migrant crisis