Egyptian students launch anti-harassment campaigns
The administration and activist students at Cairo University are making progress against harassment and have started campaigns to encourage victims to speak up and to identify offenders.
CAIRO — A number of students at the faculty of computers and information at Cairo University launched the Speak Up campaign Dec. 24 to fight harassment on campus. Soha Abu Zeid, one of the spokeswomen for the effort, told Al-Monitor, “The campaign started as a project for the media campaigns course, which was being taught during the first semester of the current academic year. However, students decided to carry on with the activities for the second, current semester, although the course had ended.”
She further explained, “At the beginning, a work group chose harassment as a subject for the campaign. We conducted a poll among university students on the issue, as we had noticed an increase in the rate of harassment on campus, and the results of the poll confirmed our observations.”
Abu Zeid also said, “The campaign aims at encouraging female students to speak up about the cases of harassment they have faced on campus, as we have noticed that the main problem in harassment cases is the victims’ reluctance to talk about it. Therefore, we chose the title 'Speak Up' for the campaign. We are using social networking sites for participation and complaints of students who have been harassed on campus. The names of victims remain anonymous to preserve confidentiality.”
She spoke about one of the campaign's successes. “Based on the complaints we received from students who have been harassed, we discovered a recurring complaint against one of the teaching staff at the faculty of economics and political science. We then talked with the victims to persuade them to make a formal complaint against the accused before the Anti-Harassment Supreme Committee at the university. They actually did, and he was suspended from work and is currently being investigated,” said Abu Zeid. The anti-harassment committee was established in June 2014 as part of a university initiative.
