Egypt: March to stop sex harassment ended in violence

A march demanding an end to sexual harassment turned ugly when women involved were attacked by a mob of angry men in Tahrir Square today (June 8, 2012). Eye witnesses share their experience on Twitter.
Associated Press journalist Sarah El Deeb, who was present, describes what happened in the following tweets:

@seldeeb: The assault on the march of #EndSH was by many men- this was targeted to break it up and offend and assault participants.

@seldeeb: The men in the march #EndSH fended off against attackers but the number was huge and some women were cornered

@seldeeb: The people in the area were freaked out by mob &some shut their shops because of how violent this looked #EndSh.finally 1shop gave shelter

@seldeeb: Some witnesses say ppl surrounding the march were already heckling the girls b4 the attack began #EndSH

May your hand be severed. No to sexual harassment, reads a sign held at the protest. Photograph shared on Twitter by Sarah El Deeb

Reports of sexual harassment have continued to trickle throughout the months of protest. Amira Howeidy provides context:

@amirahoweidy: sexually harassing female protestors is an established practice invented by Mubarak's National Democratic Party & dates back to 2005

Turk4Syria asks if anyone ever gets arrested for harassing women and Mohamed Yahia responds:

@MohammedY: @Turk4Syria nobody ever does. It is so systematic many suspect it's endorsed by those in power to intimidate female protesters #EndSH

Sherine Thabet suggests [ar]:

@sherinethabet: ‬‏ الجملة اللي بقولها في كل حتة مع اي حد، المتحرش مش هايسمع الكلام، المتحرش مش هاتقدر توعيه، المتحرش لازم يكش، لازم المجتمع ينبذه، بس

The sentence I repeat everywhere with everyone is: the harasser will not listen to anyone. The harasser cannot be educated. The harasser needs to disappear and the only way to do that is when society rejects them. That's it.

And Deena Adel concludes:

@deena_adel: Can we please please make use of this renewed surge of anger over sexual harassment & take concrete steps to fight it? #EndSH

More reactions are available under the hash tag #EndSH on Twitter.

Written by Amira Al Hussaini Global Voices