Cairo: A new film, to be shown at the Dubai Film Festival in December, has highlighted the growing problem of harassment of women in Egypt.
The movie, called 678, is the first to tackle the issue, which is a huge problem for many Egyptian women and especially on public transport, which is widely used in a country of 80 million people.
In the film, popular actress and singer Bushra plays the part of an employee who suffers from harassment and is regularly molested while travelling to and from work on the public bus service. It marks the directorial debut of Mohammad Diab and is named after bus route No 678, which the heroine uses.
"The claim that the film harms Egypt's image is a silly joke. Keeping silent on this phenomenon is what really harms Egypt's name," Bushra said in a recent interview.
According to a 2008 survey, conducted by a non-governmental group, 83 per cent of Egyptian women and 98 per cent of foreign women residing in Cairo said they'd been subjected to harassment. The survey, carried out by the Egyptian Centre for Women rights, found that 62 per cent of local men surveyed had harassed women.
Two years ago, a court in Cairo sentenced a driver to three years in jail for molesting a female student in public. A rise in the number of such incidents has prompted the government to introduce a public awareness campaign and led to an increase in the number of police patrolling the streets.
Human rights groups, however, believe that many harassment cases still go unreported in what is considered a patriarchal society, because women fear social disgrace. They are often blamed for encouraging the molesters because of the way they dress. Or they are said to be ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time'. "The film tackles the problem of overpopulation in Egypt, which has given rise to other problems such as harassment and late marriages," said actress Bushra. "In fact, the film lets out a cry against sexual harassment and demands authorities to be tougher in handling it," she added.
