It was inspiring to witness women protest alongside men in Egypt; at the time, it seemed like a movement within a movement. But that swell has since crashed, in great part because of Lara Logan and other female correspondents who've bravely and dutifully shed light on the heinous reality of living in a place that treats women like open-to-all sex organs.
And now, another reality check: In Wednesday’s Foreign section, Bob Drogin told the story of Mariam Nekiwi, a young woman who, like Logan, was also a victim of sexual harassment on the day Hosni Mubarak stepped down.
First someone grabbed her groin, she said. Other hands groped the rest of her body, pinching hard and yanking at her clothes. She was shoved one way and then the other. The frenzy was so sudden, the crush so stifling, that she could barely see. She shouted, and then screamed. The reaction was swift.
"People started yelling at me to be quiet," recalled Nekiwi, a 24-year-old video editor, still shaken by the ordeal. "They said: 'Don't tarnish the revolution. Don't make a scene.' They said: 'We are men. We're sorry. Just go now.' "
That's right. Men were rendering an innocent woman helpless after they'd spent 18 days rallying against that very feeling. In that moment, those men silenced her to satisfy their own agenda. Sound familiar?
"The respite we saw at Tahrir was temporary," Nehad Abul Komsan, head of the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, told Drogin. "It means a revolution doesn't end all our problems."
To read the complete news story please visit L.A.Times
It was inspiring to witness women protest alongside men in Egypt; at the time, it seemed like a movement within a movement. But that swell has since crashed, in great part because of Lara Logan and other female correspondents who've bravely and dutifully shed light on the heinous reality of living in a place that treats women like open-to-all sex organs.
And now, another reality check: In Wednesday’s Foreign section, Bob Drogin told the story of Mariam Nekiwi, a young woman who, like Logan, was also a victim of sexual harassment on the day Hosni Mubarak stepped down.
First someone grabbed her groin, she said. Other hands groped the rest of her body, pinching hard and yanking at her clothes. She was shoved one way and then the other. The frenzy was so sudden, the crush so stifling, that she could barely see. She shouted, and then screamed. The reaction was swift.
"People started yelling at me to be quiet," recalled Nekiwi, a 24-year-old video editor, still shaken by the ordeal. "They said: 'Don't tarnish the revolution. Don't make a scene.' They said: 'We are men. We're sorry. Just go now.' "
That's right. Men were rendering an innocent woman helpless after they'd spent 18 days rallying against that very feeling. In that moment, those men silenced her to satisfy their own agenda. Sound familiar?
"The respite we saw at Tahrir was temporary," Nehad Abul Komsan, head of the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, told Drogin. "It means a revolution doesn't end all our problems."
To read the complete news story please visit L.A.Times