Arabic scientists: sexual violence against women is part of arabic culture

[DetlefK]

http://egyptianstreets.com/2015/03/05/the-moral-epidemic-of-egypt-99-of-women-are-sexually-harassed/

96.5% of egyptian women have been sexually harassed physically at least once in their lives.

Some attribute it to the lack of education, lack of public safety, and poverty, but there’s a major focus on the societal acceptance of sexual harassment as being one of the main drives behind its growth in our society. The streets witness a high level of tolerance towards sexual harassment especially when it comes to justifying the act.

...

With societal acceptance of sexual harassment reaching critical levels, and public spaces being rendered as unsafe spaces for women of all ages, harassment is sometimes used as a tool to serve other goals. This was obviously seen in mob assaults on female activists and protesters back in 2011 in order to prevent and scare them from participating in 25th Jan revolution.

...

Nearly half of the male population who were involved in the study blamed women for their tight clothing when asked about the reason behind harassing them. Furthermore, 37.1 percent said that women wanted to be harassed, and were asking for it.

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http://www.bento.de/politik/in-vielen-arabischen-laendern-gibt-es-regelmaessig-sexuelle-gewalt-gegen-frauen-wie-kommt-das-245309/
(article in german)

The image Arabs have of western women is based on a misunderstanding of western culture. They see the sexualization of the female body and the sexual self-determination of women and they read this as any western woman being down to fuck.

During the Arab Spring protests in Egypt, General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi (the current President) ordered egyptian soldiers to grab the crotches of female protesters, supposedly to see if they are still virgins. And this vaginal penetration was officially somehow supposed to protect these female protesters from being raped.

About a third of moroccan women are regularly subjected to violence. Marital rape is not a crime in Morocco.

In Saudi-Arabia, house-maids regularly get raped and mistreated.

A 24yo norwegian woman was raped in the UAE. And when she reported it to the police, they arrested her for lewd sexual behavior. She almost went to jail for being raped.

According to the british-egyptian sociologist Shereen El Feki, the sexual assaults aren't primarily about sex. They are about men dominating and denigrating women. They are about men proving to themselves and other men how manly and strong they are.

According to the lebanese literary-scientist Samira Aghacy this behavior has been taught to men for generations. In arabic comics, books, movies the man is always the hero, the protector of the family. (Similar to western culture.)

Men get raised with the expectation to show their male dominance by being rich, being strong, being heroes, being providers. This clashes with the extreme youth-unemployment in arab countries. These young men cannot show their male dominance by showing off with a good job or with money. They simply cannot afford to prove their manliness.
So they demonstrate the dominance of their gender in a different way. With sexual violence.

But it's not only material impotence. The increasing interconnection of the global society shows these men how little political power they have, how little they can do to make their home-country a better place, how politically impotent they are.
And in the face of this impotence and frustration they need a way to show to themselves and to other men that they are still manly, dominating men who call the shots.



There is one glimpse of hope: Women right's movements are gaining steam in the arabic world and the younger generations start to question the traditional gender-roles.



Sources for the second article:
http://www.igfm.de/frauen-unter-der-scharia/
https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/egypt_report.pdf
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/18/sexual-violence-egypt-women-report-shereen-el-feki
http://kvinfo.org/news-and-background/sexual-harassment-urban-phenomenon

[raccoon]

1. "96.5% of egyptian women have been sexually harassed physically at least once in their lives. "

I'd say that's true in just about any country in the world, unless a woman has led a very cloistered life and never
gone anywhere alone, especially without a male escort.

[Lizzie Poppet]

12. I'm not sure that figure would hold in most of the West, actually.

Harassment via inappropriate touching (or worse) is far from uncommon, but I'd be very surprised indeed if the figure were anywhere near that high in most of the West. For example, the Penn, Schoen, and Berland study (2000) determined that while 87% of US women had experienced some form of harassment, only about half had experienced physical harassment. That's still way too damn many, but it indicates that the problem is much more pervasive in the Arabic world.

[LanternWaste]

22. Four out of ten women being physically assaulted indicates that it is very pervasive here.

" indicates that the problem is much more pervasive in the Arabic world."

It's a bit of a sticky wicket attempting to minimize nine out of ten women being harassed in the west is still more socially evolved, predicating that simply on the form/format of the harassment. I understand your desire to do so, though.

[Lizzie Poppet]

28. I rather doubt you understand "my desire" in the least.

If you did, you wouldn't have so grossly mis-represented it...

However, to assist you in your little reading comprehension problem, I didn't say the problem wasn't pervasive here, I said it was more so in the Arabic world, a statement I stand by. The data makes that utterly obvious.

[hollowdweller]

30. My wife was harassed in the 80's at a beach in the US

But it was two arab guys grabbing her legs and stuff. She managed to get away from them.

[Democat]

2. Was hoping to post before someone said "same as America"

But too late.

[cherokeeprogressive]

3. One needs to be quick on the draw.

[zazen]

6. it's not "same," but I don't know any woman who hasn't been harassed once

I think the difference is one of frequency and ubiquity. As in, it doesn't just happen once, it happens a lot, and it doesn't just happen to women between 15-25 frequently--it happens to almost every one a lot more.

Of course it's worse there, but whether you're killed here or killed there, you're just as dead, and whether you're raped here or raped there, it's still awful. For the living, the difference is in the validation and support and building trust that it won't happen again and belief that your abuser might face justice--in support to cope with the trauma. Doesn't sound like there's much if any of that "there."

That's the difference.

[SolutionisSolidarity]

7. It's not their fault.

When the only problem you can recognize is white male patriarchy, the only solutions you can propose involve blaming white males. It's Pavlovian at this point.

[LanternWaste]

24. cowering is convenient and needs no evidence or source material.

No doubt, you'll cower behind implication rather than specify to whom you are referring. Because cowering is convenient and needs no evidence or source material.

Oh, and welcome back!!!

[LanternWaste]

23. No doubt, you'll rationalize or allege some creative relevance to your prediction..

No doubt, you'll rationalize or allege some creative relevance to your prediction.

[Gman]

4. I have a hard time with the theory of rape as control and dominance.

I think it's more they just can't control their drives and in that society where it's apparently acceptable, there's little deterrence abs motivation to control themselves. The act itself is by its nature control and dominance. Dunno, maybe they do get off on the control thing too.

Something that deeply ingrained in a culture for hundreds of years will not be easily changed.

[Squinch]

27. You should probably educate yourself. Men can control themselves and do not have to rape women.

The male sex drive does not require rape. It is ignorant to suggest it does.

Rape is about control and dominance.

[JI7]

31. So go to a club or somewhere and find someone to have consensual sex with

[CanonRay]

5. I know there are lots on DU that won't like seeing this.

We poke fun at the GOP for ignoring science and fact, but our house isn't all that clean when it goes against our desired beliefs.

[romanic]

8. Oh shit.

I can't even fathom how this thread is going to go. I will add and say, what encompasses "Arabic" culture as a whole? Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates have different types of cultures, but what ties them together to see rape as "manly dominance"?

[Ace Rothstein]

10. What ties them together?

Religious Fanaticism

[Calista241]

42. The Indians have a yuuge problem with sexual violence

And most of them are Hindu, which is supposedly a religion of peace.

[KittyWampus]

17. Machismo Culture

Machismo is a word that that the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines as "a strong sense of masculine pride; an exaggerated masculinity." A culture that values machismo, it says, has "rigid gender roles."

[leftynyc]

9. I hope you're prepared for a lot

of push back and deflection. Some uncomfortable truths in your post.

[Orsino]

11. Part of every culture.

Most cultures manage to come up with wordier excuses.

[TipTok]

19. ... and a lot less rape

[Orsino]

38. Women rape a whole lot less than men do, too. n/t

[smirkymonkey]

13. K&R

Kicking for exposure.

[Binkie The Clown]

14. What does one do when the truth is "politically incorrect"?

Speak the truth. It's really that simple.

[hifiguy]

16. Indeed.

Truth is truth, let the chips fall where they may. And no one who states the truth need ever feel the need to apologize for so doing.

[Oneironaut]

39. OT: What movie is that from?

I've seen that GIF like 10 times already in different places.

[TheManInTheMac]

40. It's from Citizen Kane.

[Oneironaut]

41. Ahhhhh. Thx

[pampango]

18. Liberals are 'politically incorrect' for believing the all Muslim men are not animals?

That sound like something the Donald would say to back up his plan to ban Muslims from entering the US. (Though Trump would expand the 'animals' category to Hispanics, since they are all rapists.)

What does one do when the truth is "politically incorrect"?

Speak the truth. It's really that simple.

And expose liberals for the fools that they are? We hear you, Donald.

Isn't amazing that hundreds of thousands of Muslim men living in Europe have been able to avoid raping and abusing women, given their inherent predisposition to rape and abuse women? Or are German liberals just covering up all of these Muslim crimes our of political correctness?

And if liberals are posting this on DU, what is the far-right posting in Freeperville about evil Muslims and liberals' political correctness? And could we tell the difference?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

25. Up to a point.

Hitler was a strong leader who reduced unemployment, build good roads, and strengthened Germany's military.

There are a *lot* of true things one can say about the universe. One *has* to be selective about which to draw attention to and which to leave unspoken.

What one *shouldn't* do, in general, is try to deny or obfuscate truths. The correct response to the above statement about Hitler is not "No", but "Yes, but he also murdered millions of innocent people".

[librechik]

15. get real--it's part of every culture

let's solve the problem we actually have and not waste time on side trips.

[TipTok]

20. It's part of every culture but the severity varies wildly...

... topping out in the cultures listed in the OP.

[jwirr]

21. Most of this could have been said in the USA about American

men during the era I grew up in. After all - its always the woman's fault and she was asking for it by the way she was dressed.

It may even be a prominent belief even now.

[guillaumeb]

26. So misogyny is cultural?

What a pathetic justification.

[Scootaloo]

32. Well, it's not genetic. It's probably not due to external pathogens. That leaves culture.

It's an ideology passed down from ancestor to descendant, ingrained into a society. That's cultural. Not every cultural practice is a positive.

[guillaumeb]

33. If it is not genetic, can you tell me of a modern culture where misogyny is NOT a problem?

And if all cultures are misogynistic to one degree or other, what is the root of misogyny?

[Scootaloo]

34. I am not intimately familair with every culture on earth.

Samuel Huntington's ignorant bullshit isn't real; there are tens of thousands of distinct cultures scattered across the earth. And that's to say nothing of subcultures or emergent cultures, and then you start looking at historical cultures!

I can tell you that most subsistence cultures have very little misogyny, and sometimes even lean towards a more matriarchal system. There seems ot be a correlation between "civilization" an patriarchy. it likely has to do with divisions of labor, at the root of it all.

[guillaumeb]

36. What little I have read supports much the same idea.

That hunter gatherer societies are more likely to be less misogynistic. Many First People groups were matriarchal based, but myth and movies focus on the warrior aspect of those societies.

[Lizzie Poppet]

35. Exactly.

As others have pointed out, (male) Muslim conduct in this matter varies wildly. I've never experienced sexual harassment from Muslims men here in the US, and I know a fair few here in Portland. Quite gentlemanly, actually...

But it' s obvious that doesn't hold everywhere, and I've changed my behavior a fairly great deal when I visit Europe these days. And I've sadly realized I might never cross a trip to Egypt off my bucket list.

[Scootaloo]

37. it's undoubtedly a whole suite of factors.

Egyptian society (the subject of study) has taken a sharp downturn in the last five years on this issue. What else has happened to Egyptian society in the past five years? A dictator's last crushing grasp, followed by a revolution that resulted in an incompetent Islamist leadership, which led to a coup and a new military dictator who openly uses rape as a tool of public coercion.

[JI7]

29. i have to say that there does seem less of it among Iranian men

And they are muslim but not Arabs . So there may be a cultural thing to it.

Even within europe you will see is worse in Italy than in Sweden.

Some cultures have changed for the better.

[Jim Beard]

43. Events are continueing

[link:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35326090|

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35326090

Cologne attacks: Migrant men banned from German swimming pool

"""A German town has banned male asylum seekers from a public swimming pool after women complained of harassment.

A government official in Bornheim said men from a nearby asylum shelter would be barred until they "got the message" that such behaviour was not acceptable.

It follows outrage over hundreds of sexual assaults in nearby Cologne and other German cities on New Year's Eve.

Those attacks, by men of mainly Arab and North African origin, raised tensions over the influx of migrants.

More than 1.1 million people claimed asylum in Germany in 2015.

The head of the social affairs department in Bornheim - about 20km (12 miles) south of Cologne - said the move to ban migrant men followed increasing number of reports of inappropriate behaviour from female swimmers and staff members.

"There have been complaints of sexual harassment and chatting-up going on in this swimming pool... by groups of young men, and this has prompted some women to leave," Markus Schnapka told Reuters.

He said none of the complaints involved a crime being committed, but that social workers in the town would help to ensure the asylum seekers changed their behaviour.

It is unclear how this rule will be enforced, although Germany is set to introduce new ID cards for migrants in February.
Support falling

Correspondents say the pool ban is the latest sign of increased tensions following the Cologne attacks.

On Thursday, the authorities in another town in west Germany, Rheinberg, cancelled a carnival parade planned for February over security concerns.

Rheinberg's public security chief, Jonny Strey, told German media that events in Cologne had influenced the decision and that officials were worried about from men from migrant backgrounds misbehaving.

Rheinberg Mayor Frank Tatzel later denied this, according to Reuters.

Cologne authorities expressed concern about the city's own carnival in February following the NYE attacks, promising to step up security and public awareness.

An opinion poll on Friday showed public anxiety increasing over the number of refugees and migrants arriving in Germany.

In the research, published by broadcaster ZDF (in German), 66% of the 1,203 respondents said Germany could not handle the arrivals, up from 46% in December.

Support for Chancellor Angela Merkel, under pressure over her policies to welcome refugees, also fell - with 39% of people agreeing the chancellor was doing a "good job" in this area, down from 47% in December.""""