Egyptian activists released a brutally frank video on Friday, using images recorded during the mass sexual assault of a woman last week in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to urge volunteers to join their campaign against attacks during demonstrations.
The video, created by the filmmakers Aida Elkashef and Salam Yousry, uses disturbing overhead images of a crowd of men swarming around a woman being assaulted just out of view to explain the work of Op Anti-SH, one of two new initiatives to combat the sexual harassment and rape of female protesters.
While the video includes no graphic images and shows that volunteers did eventually manage to help the woman to a safe location — near the KFC in the square — the detailed description of the woman’s assault stunned some viewers.
After Egyptians expressed shock at another video clip — the images of police officers stripping and beating a male protester in Cairo that were broadcast live on Friday night — one activist, Sarah Naguib, argued that such brutality is depressingly routine two years after the Egyptian revolution began.
Despite that reality, the Op Anti-SH activists vow to continue their struggle.
In a video interview on the initiative published on Saturday, one of the women involved in Op Anti-SH, Engy Ghozlan, said: “This is our country, and we will not be silent about sexual harassment, not the type that happens to us every day, nor that of Tahrir. It will end, it cannot continue, because we believe Egypt deserves better.”
“In Egypt,” she added, “there is no revolution without the participation of women or without their security.”
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: February 4, 2013
An earlier version of this post incorrectly described a comment from the activist Sarah Naguib as a response to the video of sexual assault in Tahrir, rather than to video of police stripping and beating a male protester on Friday.
The Lede Blog: Frank Video of Mass Sexual Assault in Cairo Is Released by Anti-Harassment Activists
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The Lede Blog: Frank Video of Mass Sexual Assault in Cairo Is Released by Anti-Harassment Activists
