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Aman: New Initiative Set to Take a Different Approach to Sexual Harassment in Egypt

Aman: New Initiative Set to Take a Different Approach to Sexual Harassment in Egypt
written by
Hend Salah

Sexual harassment in Egypt is a tale as old as time; one that usually follows the same storyline. Despite the fact that many anti-harassment initiatives have, over the years, made strides in raising awareness and putting the issue under the spotlight, complaints of harassments are still filed by many women to this day – usually to no avail.

Harassment cases during Eid El Fetr 2016 were rife, pushing a new initiative into action.

The Aman Initiative, which is the newest project of the Mosawah Organisation for Training and Counselling, takes the approach of treating the problem rather than the symptom. With an already prepared agenda that is set to be unveiled to the public before Eid El Adha, Aman’s goals will also attempt to tackle discrimination and violence against women in Egypt.

Sexual harassment has evolved over the past years beyond its physical street form to include internet harassment as well, which is why the core of the initiative is to spread awareness throughout all platforms and among all people and institutions in order to ensure a safer environment for women. While it may be a lofty goal, and certainly one that won’t be achieved over night, the hope is that it is the first step for change.

But how will they achieve these goals? The Aman initiative’s program is divided into three parts; by monitoring and analysing how the Egyptian press covers the issue and whether it projects its stark reality or not, the initiative’s first step is to develop sophisticated media content that supports women’s need for an environment free from sexual harassment and encourages them to publicly defend their rights.

With the long term objective to apply these methods over Egypt, Aman also plans on visiting governorates and to collaborate with local institutions on developing raising awareness amongst men – hence treating the problem not the symptom and getting rid of the ‘blame culture’ that surrounds sexual harassment in Egypt.

The brains behind Aman believe that if Egypt’s male population can be educated n the matter, as well as be encouraged to take on community roles that disapprove of harassment, that we can begin to really eradicate it.

The initiative intends to flood social media platforms with online campaigns educating users on how to identify online harassers and the proper way to deal with them.

For more information about the Aman Initiative, click here.

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