Harassment... yes it is an issue

June the 20th was the day to blog and tweet about sexual harassment in Egypt, I was sick so I am late. I actually thought about avoiding the issue as it seems it will never get better, but then I thought about all of my friends who have made the effort to write something and I thought about how much the issue pisses me of so here is my piece on it. I shall start by giving you an example of a normal day in Maadi, which is a upscale neighborhood on the outskirts of Cairo inhabited by lots and lots of expats, so foreigners aren't such a strange site here.
I leave the house for work at around 7:30 dressed in jeans and a t shirt that shows no cleavage, I walk to the end of the street to hail a cab, before I reach the end of the street I am already shouted or hissed  at by at least one man. I hail a cab, I get in without making any eye contact and tell him my destination, he already has a face on him like the cat who has got the cream, he stares at me through the rear view mirror for the entire duration of the journey and every now and then he will ask me if I am single and if I like Egyptian men, sometimes he will go on to say I have beautiful eyes, I don't respond to this and put on my best "mean bitch " face. At my destination I get out and pay him and head towards the bridge that takes me to work. As I am walking to the top of the bridge a few guys ride by on mopeds, they make comments and get far too close for my liking, I get as close to the railing as I possibly can. Some days there is a guy on top of the bridge, he waits until I pass him and begins to masturbate as he walks behind me, I am sadly so used to this that I now just roll my eyes and continue walking at my normal pace. On the final street I encounter a group of school boys who laugh and point and make lewd comments. Then I get to work which is thankfully a harassment free zone, except for the days when we have work men in, but our caretaker quickly tells them to avert their eyes. From 9 to 9:30 the parents arrive with their children, the mothers often have horror stories from their own short journeys; one got flashed at with her two children in tow, and one pregnant mother was recently grabbed, more worryingly another mother spotted the masturbater doing his thing right outside the school. At 4 pm I leave work and maybe do some chores on the way home, I am constantly hissed at and guys seem to deliberately walk too close and bump into me. I get home and realize I need to order water, I call the local shop and 10 minutes later the delivery guy turns up, I answer the door in my most ugly clothes and with no make up, his eyes open up like he just saw a porn star, he greets me with a "Hey beautiful" and takes a step into my apartment; I give him an icy stare and tell him to get out, I shut the door on his face while I sort out his money, when I open the door again to give him his money he lets it drop to the floor and expects me to bend over in front of him to pick it up, when I refuse and slam the door he screams to me that I am a cunt!

This is a day when I stay in Maadi, where harassment isn't as bad as it is in the rest of Cairo, if I choose to go downtown, the taxi driver may try and grab my boobs, he may also offer me money for sex, as I walk down the street guys in nice cars will pull up close and tell me "oooh I wanna fuck you in the ass", if I choose to take the metro; guys at the metro station will begin to play porn on their phones and hold it in a way that I have to see it. The point is, it happens but people here, both male and female choose to deny it happens, and while they keep on denying it it will continue to happen. Women feel they can't speak out because it is somehow their fault and decent women don't get harassed.... BULLSHIT men made you feel like this OPEN YOUR EYES!! People say it happens everywhere and to some extent it does but I have never experienced it to this extent and neither has any foreigner I have spoken to. This blog won't change a thing, facing up to the fact that it is a problem will set the wheels of change in motion but I really wonder how long it will be before that happens... maybe we will all have to were a niquab to stop the poor men lusting after us. Until then I guess we will have to resign to kicking them in the balls... bastards

Something I wrote during the revolution...

To say that the past days have been unprecedented is an understatement.
Most people know me as being adventurous and a bit of a thrill seeker, but this? Well its fair to say, this has pushed me to my limits.
It started on Cairo scholars when someone asked about the ATMs being out of order in Maadi, he suggested it may be because people have emptied them in a panic, preparing for the results of the 25th January protests. It seemednobody took this mail serous and a few people even mocked him.
Then came Tuesday, on Tuesday I was restless and followed the news all day ( I am a news junkie anyway). I had vowed to be sensible and stay home but the second twitter got cut I felt the biggest urge to be there... nothing like censorship to make one more curious!!.
I called my roommate and admittedly at this point I could have been persuaded against going, but it turned out she was as eager as I was. We arranged to meet at the Maadi metro station and I had to smile to myself as she showed up in full demonstration mode; Pepper spray at hand and money stuffed in her bra in case we needed to pay bribes. We assumed Sadat metro station would be closed so departed the metro at Saad Zagoul. It was the quietest I have ever seen downtown and to tell the truth it was a bit of a anti climax, yes it was eerie and felt a bit  like the calm before the storm but I wanted the bloody storm! Had they cut off twitter for this??? We wandered towards Tahrir square and eventually came across a load of people praying in front of lines and lines of police. This seemed quite interesting so we hovered and gawped at that for a minute or two. The roads were blocked so we had to enter Tahrir from the Cornish (road next to the Nile) We followed a group of Chinese men who looked like they knew what they were doing. No one stopped us I don't even recall any strange looks. Upon arriving at Tahrir we scouted the area for a women friendly view point and decided on the big plant pot outside the Mogamma. We stayed on this plant pot for about an hour, taking in the buzzing atmosphere around us. After a while my feet started to hurt so we packed up and took a taxi home... That was it, protest over. Never in my life did I expect the following events.
The next day I bragged about my Tahrir trip to everyone who I came across. Some thought I was brave, some thought I was stupid. The protests went on and the Egyptians who lived downtown left work early. By Thursday it seemed the situation was becoming serious, work was normal, fewer children maybe ahh and 2 teachers didn't make it in as there were problems with the metro. After work the internet was sketchy and there were talks of massive protests... a few hours later Facebook went down, I turned on a proxy and congratulated myself for being so clever, posted a status saying Facebook, twitter and sms is down what is next?? They turned out to be my famous last words as just minutes later the internet went down and suddenly everything seemed very serious indeed. We didnt believe it at first, it had to be T data or something, surely its not possible to pull the plug on the internet? A few calls later and it was confirmed; Egypt was officially internetless. We made the best of the evening by watching movies but I think everyone went to bed that night with a heavy heart. The next morning we awoke before the prayer, tried to make a call and discovered that now the phones were down too.... The outside world was getting further and further away. We sat at home and watched Al Jazeera English all day, they had by now, given up on the Palestine papers and started some pretty impressive coverage of the protests. Things were getting crazy. Police stations had been burnt as had the government's head office. By Saturday morning the police had vanished, I decided to go with my friend to his families house as they had been worrying about him. We arrived at his place in Shoubra shortly before curfew and not long after we got there the gun shots started. The looting had begun. Places that had made me forget I was in a developing country were being destroyed one after another, my sense of security was slipping away. The shots outside were loud now. My friend stated to assemble an arsenal of home made weapons. Bats, metal bars, Tequila Molotov things (I wanted him to use cooking oil and save the tequila). I contributed by taping a knife to the end of a stick and spent the next few minutes waving it around menacingly. We pushed the fridge freezer against the front door and spent the night barricaded in the house. Seriously, it was frightening and I don't think anyone got much sleep.
Everyone handles stress like this in a different way. My friend's Mother and Sister were crying, I was jumpy and asking questions like a crazy person, and my friend was silent. The atmosphere was heavy and what made it worse for me was not being able to talk to anyone about it. The next day was just as bad, constant shots outside and reports on state tv about all the areas in Cairo that had been looted. It felt like the world was falling apart and my friends were starting to flee the country. The internet was still down and I felt totally isolated. I was getting on every ones nerves by constantly asking for the international news and translations of the state news. At some point during day two of what I will call the Shouba siege I actually got my stuff and tried to leave my friends house. I wanted to be in Maadi, I wanted foreigners, I wanted to talk....This of course was a stupid thing to do as it was dangerous as hell outside. I spent the afternoon sleeping and  playing angry birds then came nightfall and with it more shots. My friend decided to join the men who were protecting the neighborhood. I spent some time looking down at the street and couldn't help thinking that they seemed to be enjoying themselves. They lit fires to stay warm, drank tea and watched the teenagers play football. State Tv was driving me crazy, I couldn't understand but just the visual was enough for me to know it was propaganda. I spent the night calling friends in Maadi. The next day the shots died down. I longed to go outside and was starting to feel like Anne Frank!. Spent the day mooching around feeling sorry for myself. I had now given up on getting translations for the news and shut myself in a room with the house phone and my I phone... yep more angry birds.. oh how I missed the internet. I think my friend saw how unhappy I was and how much I longed to be in Maadi, he offered to escort me back in the morning.There were less shots that night (Monday). On Tuesday I woke up bright and early eager to get back.
We walked to the metro station, every one on the street seemed to be on edge. There were no police although it had been reported on State TV that they had been redeployed all over the city. People were paying even less attention to the rules then they normally do. The woman's cart on the metro was full of men and when one brave woman screamed at them to piss off (or the Arabic equivalent) they stayed were they where and laughed. I don't think I have ever felt so tense on the metro. We got to Maadi and looked for a working ATM which, we of course didn't find. I headed towards the shop to pick up some pasta, my answer to all of this has been pasta. If in doubt, stock up on pasta!
On the way to the shop I heard someone shout my name, it was a girl from work and boy it felt good to see someone I knew. At this point my friend figured I would be safe alone and headed off back to Shoubra. I got my Pasta and toddled of on my way. Before reaching home I bumped into another friend yippee I was feeling normal again.
That night we went to a friends house in Degla, it was so nice to be with people again. All of them foreign and all of them understanding the thoughts and concerns I had. This by the way is no disrespect to my friend, he had enough to worry about himself.
When we got back to our flat, we decided to make arty farty things to kill the time, whilst doing this I painted my cat pink, one of many curfew killers I have had to come up with.
The protests that day had been massive and Mubarak was to make a speech. We were convinced he was going to step down. As we now know, he didn't step down, his big speech was to tell us that he wouldn't stand again for the next elections.
The next morning was amazing.... the internet was back yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay and things seemed calm, brilliant, dare I say, over?
I spent some time reading the messages my friends had left me, all of them very touching. Googled all of the things I had written down for future googleing. Google was the thing I missed most
Then I went to meet friends for a coffee at Villa 55. It was a beautiful sunny day, the internet was back, I was sitting with my friends, it felt normal, it felt over, it felt like we were survivors.
When I got home and turned on the news my heart sunk.
Pro Mubarak protesters had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and attacked the peaceful protesters. This was awful, horrid. It looked and felt like civil war, this beautiful day had turned into a sad, sad day of dread, unspeakable things had happened. It was a disgrace to humanity.
On Thursday the fighting went on. State Tv started blaming "foreign influences" so people began to turn on foreigners.On Friday I was afraid to leave the house. Cairo scholars were reporting foreigners being picked up all over the place and being taken for interrogation. The protests were huge but thank god they were peaceful.
Now its Saturday, well to be fair its early Sunday morning. Things were quiet today and I am told that normality shall return on Sunday. People are going to work and the banks will be open.
So do I feel its over? Let me get through Sunday then I will make a prediction......