Egypt is famously plagued by sexual harassment. Here it ranges from cat calls and pet names to groping and rape with a knife. There is no accountability and no shame in the streets. Whether out of fear or indifference, very few people are willing to intervene in such instances. I know from personal experience no one will come to your rescue, even on a crowded street in the middle of rush hour.
Sexual harassment and assault is not just an Egyptian problem. My mom was worried when I told her I was going to India next week. India had just been in the news for a series of brutal and fatal rapes. But sexual harassment is also not limited to the developing world either.
When I get into conversations with people who dismiss Egypt as a land of sexual harassers, I often point back home. We're far from perfect. There is a lot of sexual discrimination in DC. Working on the Hill as a young woman, I developed a no-BS attitude to combat people's perception of me as a silly girl.
Our problems go beyond sexual discrimination. Sexual abuse is unfortunately far from uncommon in all levels of society. Yes, it happens in the lower class, but it also happens in the upper middle and upper classes. But it's quiet. There's a stigma against talking about it, against dealing with it. I saw it when the Chris Brown-Rihanna thing happened. Half of the people blamed her for deserving it, and the other half blamed her for putting up with it.
Sexual harassment also plagues our military. From military academies to the front lines, I read a constant stream of stories in military blogs and papers about attacks. Over the past year or so more than a handful of military officers have had their promotions halted--gasp!--or been demoted--gasp gasp!--for sexual assault.
In November 2012, Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, an F-16 pilot, was convicted by an all-male jury of aggrivated assault against a female contractor in Italy. According to ABC News, Wilkerson, who was the base's inspector general, was sentenced to a year in prison and dismissed from service. The case was reversed in February when a commander agreed with Wilkerson's attorney that guilt had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt because of a lack of physical evidence. The fact that a commander unilaterally overturned a military court conviction enraged Congress--mainly women in Congress--and led to the introduction of legislation that would essentially strip commanding officers of their ability to reverse criminal convictions of service members.
This was all before, in what is almost an Onion headline, the Air Force officer in charge of the branch's sexual assault prevention program was arrested for sexual assault.
Two days after the announcement of the arrest of Jeffrey Krusinski, the aforementioned Air Force officer, the Pentagon released a report estimating 26,000 people in the armed forces were sexually assaulted in 2012, up from 19,000 in 2010.
The President talked a big talk, ordering Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel" to "step up our game exponentially," and told victims of such sexual assault, "I've got their backs." But this is a long-standing problem that did not just pop up now. It's been simmering for years and he's been president for years. I'm a huge Obama supporter, but this is an issue that should have been addressed a long time ago.
Sexual harassment and assault is not just an Egyptian problem. My mom was worried when I told her I was going to India next week. India had just been in the news for a series of brutal and fatal rapes. But sexual harassment is also not limited to the developing world either.
When I get into conversations with people who dismiss Egypt as a land of sexual harassers, I often point back home. We're far from perfect. There is a lot of sexual discrimination in DC. Working on the Hill as a young woman, I developed a no-BS attitude to combat people's perception of me as a silly girl.
Our problems go beyond sexual discrimination. Sexual abuse is unfortunately far from uncommon in all levels of society. Yes, it happens in the lower class, but it also happens in the upper middle and upper classes. But it's quiet. There's a stigma against talking about it, against dealing with it. I saw it when the Chris Brown-Rihanna thing happened. Half of the people blamed her for deserving it, and the other half blamed her for putting up with it.
Sexual harassment also plagues our military. From military academies to the front lines, I read a constant stream of stories in military blogs and papers about attacks. Over the past year or so more than a handful of military officers have had their promotions halted--gasp!--or been demoted--gasp gasp!--for sexual assault.
In November 2012, Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, an F-16 pilot, was convicted by an all-male jury of aggrivated assault against a female contractor in Italy. According to ABC News, Wilkerson, who was the base's inspector general, was sentenced to a year in prison and dismissed from service. The case was reversed in February when a commander agreed with Wilkerson's attorney that guilt had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt because of a lack of physical evidence. The fact that a commander unilaterally overturned a military court conviction enraged Congress--mainly women in Congress--and led to the introduction of legislation that would essentially strip commanding officers of their ability to reverse criminal convictions of service members.
This was all before, in what is almost an Onion headline, the Air Force officer in charge of the branch's sexual assault prevention program was arrested for sexual assault.
Two days after the announcement of the arrest of Jeffrey Krusinski, the aforementioned Air Force officer, the Pentagon released a report estimating 26,000 people in the armed forces were sexually assaulted in 2012, up from 19,000 in 2010.
The President talked a big talk, ordering Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel" to "step up our game exponentially," and told victims of such sexual assault, "I've got their backs." But this is a long-standing problem that did not just pop up now. It's been simmering for years and he's been president for years. I'm a huge Obama supporter, but this is an issue that should have been addressed a long time ago.
