Rape in Egypt

Rape is one of the most common crimes in Egypt.Marital rape is not illegal in the country. By 2008, U.N. quoted Egypt's Interior Ministry's figure that 20,000 rapes take place every year, although according to the activist Engy Ghozlan (ECWR), rapes are 10 times higher than the stats given by Interior Ministry, making it 200,000 per year.Mona Eltahawy has also noted the same figure (200,000), and added that it was before the revolution, today the number is actually higher.

Rapes have been carried out during festivals and the Egyptian protests, it includes the public rapes carried on women, and the female journalists.

Rapes are usually not reported in Egypt, due to the fear of social rejection and culturally it's not accepted.

Rania Hamid from Centre for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance (CEWLA) says that no one comes and tells that they have been raped, saying "Girls consider it to be quite enough that a few people know about the rape." Rania Hamid further describes the problem, that even if a girl would reveal that she has been raped, the whole issue would take form of honour, she said that "There are problems of honour. Sometimes a brother or cousin may kill her, saying ‘you wanted this, you encouraged this, you’re not honourable, and what is that you are wearing’?... Of course it’s not her fault, but who are you going to tell that to? The girl or society?"

According to the US State Department country report, "honour crimes" are not actually illegal in Egypt.

Farah Shash, a psychologist explains that young boys are rarely stopped or opposed by their parents for molesting girls publicly, it's because the children always saw the same behavior around them. Shash further adds that "Often, families will just laugh". According Seif el-Dawla who runs a center in the country told that "Sexual molestation and harassment ... is routine for women who come across police".

Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR) has called the problem "social cancer" and suggested that dress code is not deterrent at all. ECWR carried out a survey in 2008 which found that 83 percent of Egyptian women and 98 percent of foreign women within Egypt had experienced sexual harassment at some time, and only 12% had gone to police for complaining such issue. Over 62% of Egyptian men admitted harassing women, and 53% of Egyptian men have blamed women for 'bringing it on.'

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Wikipedia