Egyptian actress reports road harassment
Incident comes amid a mass campaign against sex offences in the country
Cairo: Young Egyptian actress Hannah Al Zahed has accused a group of people riding a truck of verbally harassing her while she was at the wheel on a road in a Cairo suburb.
The 26-year-old performer released a video clip of the alleged harassers riding in the back of a pick-up truck.
“It was 9.30pm when the truck came close to my car and kept chasing me,” she told Egyptian state television. “They shouted very bad words. The chase continued for five minutes, which were a very long time for me,” she added. “I decided to film them on my mobile. At that point, they sped off and I couldn’t jot down the plate number.”
In the online video, Hannah urged women to report harassment to authorities “to regain your rights”.
Police are hunting for the alleged offenders, state television reported.
The incident comes amid a mass campaign in Egypt against sexual harassment after dozens of women claimed in Instagram postings to have been sexually assaulted and blackmailed by a university student. Egyptian prosecutors ordered the suspect detained on charges of assaulting three girls, including a minor, and threatening others to circulate “dishonouring things” about them.
The alleged assaults have triggered an outcry in the conservative country.