Noha Elostaz, the first woman in Egypt to have won a conviction against a man for sexual harassment. Eight years after Elostaz won the conviction against the man that assaulted her, activists and lawyers say they see progress in transforming attitudes and more harassers being jailed. - Mohamed El Shahed/AFP
Noha Elostaz, the first woman in Egypt to have won a conviction against a man for sexual harassment. Eight years after Elostaz won the conviction against the man that assaulted her, activists and lawyShow more

Egypt’s fight against sexual harassment bearing fruit



CAIRO // Eight years after the first woman in Egypt won a conviction against a man for sexual harassment, activists and lawyers see progress in transforming attitudes and more harassers being jailed.

In 2008, Noha Elostaz broke social taboos by disclosing details of an assault as she pushed for her harasser’s conviction.

Sherif Gebreel had reached out from his vehicle, groped her, hit the accelerator and dragged her along. As she fell, she saw him laughing.

Her defiance, a landmark three-year sentence for Gebreel and years of campaigning by volunteers, have now shifted the tide from the days when authorities and the public treated harassment as trivial, isolated incidents usually blamed on women.

“Now I hear about so many cases, girls who take men to police stations, and people now have a sense of familiarity with this act,” Ms Elostaz, 34, said.

“In daily life, things have improved. I can personally feel it on the street.”

According to a 2013 UN study, 99.3 per cent of Egyptian women have experienced at least one form of harassment, and 82.6 per cent said they did not feel safe in the streets.

Public debate over the problem intensified in the aftermath of the January 2011 uprising against former president Hosni Mubarak.

The protests centred around Cairo’s Tahrir Square, where constant media coverage also highlighted sexual attacks and helped to uproot public denial of the phenomenon.

“Of course there is progress,” said Mozn Hassan, the executive director of Nazra for Feminist Studies, a leading women’s rights group.

Ms Hassan said her organisation has won more than 50 sexual harassment cases, mostly involving prison terms, since authorities directly criminalised sexual harassment in June 2014, days before president Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s inauguration.

One of the worst attacks happened in June 2014, during celebrations marking Mr El Sisi’s inauguration.

A widely shared video showed the bloodied naked body of a woman as a mob pulled and pushed her to the ground and policemen tried to rescue her.

Shortly afterwards, Mr El Sisi visited her in hospital bearing flowers, apologised and vowed to crack down on harassment.

The following month, seven men were sentenced to life and two men to 20 years over assaults around Tahrir.

For Mr El Sisi to visit the victim “was a message to the state that this is no longer acceptable”, Ms Hassan said.

Michael Raouf, a lawyer with the El Nadeem Centre for the Management and Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, said he realised the impact of such rulings when he overheard young men commenting about the clothing of a nearby woman.

“One was saying ‘Look what she’s wearing. Her brother or father let her leave the house looking like that, and if you say anything they put you in jail’,” Mr Raouf recalled.

From the very beginning, anti-harassment efforts sprang from the grassroots.

The issue was brought to the forefront of public debate in 2006, when throngs of men assaulted women in central Cairo during a public holiday. While newspapers ignored the incident, bloggers reported it.

Following the 2011 uprising, anti-harassment graffiti spread around downtown Cairo, volunteers organised to rescue women from mob attacks, and more women shared their stories publicly.

In February 2013, women took to the streets brandishing knives in a symbolic protest against sexual violence.

“Those who recall Noha’s case, those who remember 2006 and people calling us crazy, those who recall 2013 with people saying ‘No, these things do not happen in Tahrir’, now there is a difference,” said Ms Hassan.

But for 22-year-old Yosra Abdelaziz, the change is not coming fast enough. She tried to report harassers but without success. Even at home, she says her older brother harasses her.

“This thing with my brother, I used to tell no one. Now I tell everyone and write about it on Facebook,” Ms Abdelaziz said.

She has now found some peace and let go of the guilt and shame, and is looking for her own apartment so she can lead an independent life.

“Imagine if we weren’t standing up to it, what the situation would be like,” said Elostaz. “In the end, what’s happening here is resistance.”

* Agence France-Presse

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  • The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
  • Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
  • National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
  • In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
  • Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
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  • Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
  • Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
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  • Fly it within visual line of sight
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  • Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
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  • Should have a live feed of the drone flight
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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1. Ministers should be in the field, instead of always at conferences

2. Foreign diplomacy must be left to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation

3. Emiratisation is a top priority that will have a renewed push behind it

4. The UAE's economy must continue to thrive and grow

5. Complaints from the public must be addressed, not avoided

6. Have hope for the future, what is yet to come is bigger and better than before

LIVING IN...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.

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Volunteers can now submit DNA samples at a number of centres across Abu Dhabi. The programme is open to all ages.

Collection centres in Abu Dhabi include:

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The bio

Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district

Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school

Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family

His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people

Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned

Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates

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