SHARE It was November 2012 – nearly two years after the eruption of mass protests on January 25, 2011 that toppled former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Soraya Bahgat planned to go to Tahrir Square to demonstrate against his successor, Mohamed Morsi, but changed her mind when she saw footage of a mob of men assaulting a woman, tearing off her clothes.
She took action in the only way she felt she could. She started a Twitter account called Tahrir Bodyguard and hundreds of volunteers answered the call to protect female protesters.
Fast-forward to July 2020 when university student Nadine Abdel Hamid took to Instagram and Facebook to warn women about sexual predator Ahmed Bassam Zaki. Her post led to the creation of the Assault Police Instagram account, which encouraged others to share their experiences, a movement the media called Egypt’s #MeToo.
nation.
Hundreds of abuse victims took to social media to denounce sexual assaults and debate gender inequality in last year’s burgeoning #MeToo movement.
In a country where women have long felt disadvantaged, the election of 148 women to parliament in October and November suggests deep-rooted patriarchal attitudes are shifting.
Host Ayesha Khan talks to Ragia Omran, a lawyer from Egypt who has been a human and women’s rights activist since the mid 1990s, and Engy Ghozlan, a social activist from Egypt, about the movement.
We also hear from Nadine Abdel Hamid, a 22-year-old woman who exposed Ahmed Bassem Zaki, a sexual predator who preyed on a number of women and underage girls.