Beyond the Headlines: how Egypt's #MeToo movement is changing the country

Gender equality activists in Egypt are breaking through conservative barriers to demand more rights for women at all levels of society

Egypt is not an easy place to be a woman. A 2017 Thomson Reuters Foundation poll found Cairo to be the most dangerous megacity for women, and 99 per cent of women in Egypt interviewed by the United Nations in 2013 reported sexual harassment.

But women are becoming bolder in the socially conservative, 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.