It makes me so angry and ashamed that Egyptians can act like this, publically and without any consequences..

People who deny it tend to be 1) men (& therefore cannot really speak from experience) 2) in denial and also denying women’s experiences, thus giving these people who behave in such a manner justification for behaving this way

I’m almost thinking about arming myself with CS gas when I’m there for self protection

I have found time and again that is first of all lack of education that makes people behave so inappropriately. Too many people in most countries (including the West) are ignorant of their country’s history and background, and of how their countrymen are perceived by people from other countries. One of the best examples is that most Americans are at a loss to realise or understand why nobody likes them anymore (this is true of most US citizens who don’t possess passports and keep maniacs like Bush in power, whether by actively voting him in or inactively by not turning out).
Equally, lack of education made Western people call your family terrorists (as happened to an Arabic looking friend of mine in England). All these people know is that ‘they fly planes into our buildings’. And unfortunately, from the uneducated point of view they are right.

Being German I have been met with enough prejudice on my travels to be sick of it. Lack of education made people think it appropriate to blame me for my country’s sins in the past. I am 23, if at all it was my great grandparents.
Living in Cairo as a Western woman, I am branded as a whore and a decadent person of no morals. I live here with my partner. I am neither. And I dress more modestly than most of the young women here who serve modesty by wearing the hijab but then wear the tightest tops and skirts I have ever seen. (That to me is a sign of quietly fighting oppression.)

From a natural interest and being careful not to appear insulting, I have asked Muslims here about their religion. I wanted to find out what Ramadan was about for example and what the religious restrictions are on women in society. I got as many answers as I asked people. Having read several books on Islam and the major religions, all of which included extracts from the Qran, I have realised that nobody seems to know their own religion. The same goes for most religions’ followers as Paul Harris points out so well in ‘The End of Faith’.
Double standards and lack of education result in people ignorant of what is acceptable behaviour towards their fellow human beings.

Similarly, most Egyptians don’t seem to know their country’s history and have no idea of the intricat moral code us ‘decadent’ Westerners adhere to. The West might appear decadent and immoral to many Muslims but there women don’t get attacked and sexually harassed when being dressed modestly – and neither when they’re not!

I and my partner were lucky to get out of Downtown when the riots were just kicking off on Eid Al Fitr. Some teenager grabbed my breast and then seemed more than happy to start a fight with my partner when he told him off in the sharpest words. Another boy then kept following me and touching my arm until we shouted at him. Luckily some older men pushed us out of the crowd before a fight could start.
I have heard of someone’s friend who got beaten to death when he tried to help a young woman who was getting harassed by a mob of men. I believe she got raped.

Whatever the image is that certain elements might be trying to paint of Egypt, the attacks and open and everyday harassment are a reality here.

Your hateful comments disturb me? I really hope that you don’t encounter those same attitudes that you have put forth in your comment directed at you because that would be racist! There are hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the UK, there are hundreds and thousands of people who are not Muslim and who are rational openminded intelligent & kind people in the UK. Don’t forget over a million British people marched against their own government’s plans for Iraq & Afghanistan. When my family were being targetted by anti-muslim campaigners it was my non-muslim friends that supported me and came to my aid, not my muslim friends sadly.

Perhaps your generalisations of people here and society here is symptomatic of the ideologies of the very thing that we are talking about – a basic lack of respect for fellow human being, whether it be based on their religion, race or gender.

Why is it ok for you to brand Western society as a cesspit & humiliating to be in whilst taking full advantage of what it has to offer you (why else would you be here?) I would suggest you look at what you said and consider how offensive it would be to people that live in this society here

Am willing to bring a match. :-)

Certainly, young men (especially when unemployed and underprivileged) behave badly in any country, and you’re right that is has nothing to do with religion. China and India still have unchecked women’s abuse in parts, much of Africa has it, and the West had it until not so long ago. And like you say, racial (as well as completely random) abuse on Western streets is a reality, perpetrated by a kind of idiot whose mindset is an exact carbon copy of what seems to have been at work here.

Still would say though that Western countries’ legal systems tend to be more developed in regards to women’s rights. Did you read the Daily Star Egypt article?

https://web.archive.org/web/20100628133525/http://dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3727

Doesn’t make it easy for women, does it.

Hmm interesting perspective, iahve different stories from different sources…there are massive questions of who these youth are, ther are stoies that mubarak and his people are the ones who are behind this…that they wish to casue some sort of civil unrest and use this to bring about in certain claws that will somehow help them have some credibility….so they wish to make there secular standards the law to follow

instead refereing to islam as the criteria for all actions the muslims are being told to follow a system of beelif whcih is alien to others…it is sad to see such events (IF TURE) allah hu alim.

But all i can say it is not as disgusting and humiliating as living here in the west the society is like a cesspit and it has become a decadent society…that is fuelled by desires….walahi i ahte living here and would rather be living with my muslim brothers and sisters abroad….

waslaam

‘shayfeen el-sharameet? shakluhum 3aizeen yitnaku’ (we were dressed in very respectable clothes and not attracting attention to ourselves at all..

me: ‘eihel 2araf dah? i7tirimu nafsuku, 3eib 3eib’

them: ‘ma3leish makkunash 3aarfeen in inti musrayeh’

like it’s ok to do that to non-egyptians but not egyptians.. the people need to be EDUCATED that women should be respected & equal… or god help the egyptian women….