The semi-governmental National Council for Women (NCW) issued a report on Monday saying that 35 cases of harassment against women were documented on the first day of Eid El-Fitr, with several resulting in legal complaints.
The NCW said that 13 cases of verbal harrassment were documented in Fustat Park in south Cairo, while 22 cases of physical harrassment were documented at Giza Zoo.
Meanwhile, Reda El-Danbouky, the executive director of the Women s Center for Guidance and Legal Awareness (WCGLA), told Ahram Online that the independent group s hotline had received 19 complaints of verbal harassment and 12 of physical harassment in downtown Cairo on the first day of Eid.
The Eid holiday normally witnesses a surge in reported cases of sexual harassment. Typical scenarios involve groups of men, typically youths, verbally and physically harrassing women and girls on the street.
In general, the vast majority of Egyptian women report suffering some form of street harassment on a daily basis, according to UN figures.
In an official statement last week, the NCW said that it had launched an operations room to respond to harassment during the Eid holiday, with lawyers conducting field visits and tagging along police personnel during security campaigns.
The WCGLA operation room covers the governorates of Cairo, Alexandria, Daqahliya, and Kafr El-Sheikh, making use of a telephone hotline and volunteers in the field.
El-Danbuky said girls and women are still afraid to file legal complaints against harassers and fear the social stigma that comes with complaining.
In recent years, the interior ministry has deployed female police officers to the streets during Eid to confront sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment has been criminalised in Egypt in 2014, with violators facing minimum jail terms of six months and/or fines of EGP 3,000 to EGP 5,000.
Harassment is defined in the law as using physical, verbal or electronic communication, or any other action, that carries sexual or pornographic connotations.
