Egyptian Teen Seeks Justice in Rape Case, and a Battle Erupts Over Women’s Rights

Authored by nytimes.com and submitted by Majnum

“If the government is watching, I want them to get out and get me my rights,” she demanded.

The video went viral, and within days the police had rounded up the entire group — the accused rapist, the other party guests, and Ms. Khamees. She was charged with prostitution, drug use and a crime recently added to Egypt’s penal code: violation of family values.

Blaming the victim for a sex crime is not unusual in Egypt.

But as the video continued to garner views online, a hashtag campaign arose demanding justice, and her case became the subject of the TV news and talk shows. After a three-month probation, during which she was required to complete a rehabilitation program, the charges were dropped.

“At first the government wasn’t going to help me,” Ms. Khamees said in an interview. “But when people spoke up, when my story became a public case, things changed.”

While dropping charges against the victim may seem like scant progress, the case was a harbinger of big changes rocking Egypt’s traditional male-dominated culture. A generation of young women who have found new freedoms online and a voice on social media are challenging the old guard of a socially conservative, patriarchal state that policed the morality of women while allowing crimes against them to go unpunished.

Her case was the leading edge of a moment that seemed to burst out of nowhere all at once.

In July, dozens of women went public with accusations in a serial assault case, leading to an arrest and prosecution. In another high-profile case, a woman testified against a group of wealthy young men, accusing them of gang-raping her years ago in a five-star hotel. And hundreds of reports poured into the National Council for Women with accusations of assaults.

Pinkbebe666 on October 31st, 2020 at 17:06 UTC »

Women is Egypt are so abused by the men there it’s ridiculous. I was doing henna once for a Egyptian woman’s bachelorette party, and I was curious in Egypt because I had always wanted to go and visit the pyramids. She said she didn’t like eygpt and it wasn’t a place for women. I didn’t understand what she really meant until I watched a couple documentaries about the rampant sexual violence women face literally minding their own business in the street. Really disturbing stuff. unreported world

AA-01 on October 31st, 2020 at 16:38 UTC »

one of the comments in the screenshot of the video says "تستهلي" meaning "you deserved it", I also searched for other screenshots from the video and they had similar comments blaming it on her, pieces of shit.

Painless8 on October 31st, 2020 at 15:35 UTC »

I stupidly left the resort alone and went exploring the bazaar. A group of men surrounded me and started ushering me somewhere and I just froze. Thank god a couple of elderly Egyptian ladies grabbed my hands and pulled me away from them. So fucking stupid.