Egyptian Activist Brings About a #MeToo Moment

January 7, 2021

Nadeen Ashraf, creator of the Instagram page “Assault Police,” warned fellow women about men accused of sexual assault. Now, she is working to change the society that produces the perpetrators.

Nadeen Ashraf has received more death threats than she can count. Her infamy began with an Instagram page named “Assault Police” and culminated in a nationwide movement. It broaches a taboo subject in Egyptian society: sexual violence. The Instagram page provides women an outlet to express their stories of sexual assault and harassment while giving guidance on how to navigate Egyptian society as a survivor. The threats received by Ashraf demonstrate the opposition that activist women face. It also shows how necessary Egypt’s #MeToo moment is.

Ashraf joins a worldwide cadre of young activists who use social media to promote inclusivity. At 22 years old, she belongs to the first generation that was born and raised with social media. “I’ve been active on social media since I was 9 years old,” Ashraf said in an interview with Egyptian Streets, “and I’ve been an avid follower of internet trends and social media for as long as I can remember.” This gives her an edge in crafting social media campaigns that reach women, old and young, across Egypt. So far, Assault Police has over 200,000 followers.

Ashraf started the account in a rage late one night. A fellow student at the American University in Cairo accused Ahmed Bassam Zaki of sexually harassing and blackmailing women on social media, but within days, the post disappeared. This was one of many instances. “I witnessed women first coming forward about being harassed by him on our university’s unofficial Facebook group around 2018, only to be silenced by having their posts deleted later,” Ashraf says. She soon created Assault Police to warn other women about Zaki. From there, the growth was explosive.

Nobody predicted such widespread success, least of all Ashraf herself. “I initially expected it to get reported and shut down by Instagram within days of its creation,” she says. Such was the fate of most social media posts calling out sexual harassment. Assault Police comes, though, at a time when a new generation of young activists are using social media to advocate for societal change. Being tech savvy is necessary when authorities arrest activists on social media for “indecency” and “debauchery” while sexual predators roam free.

A protest at the University of Cairo. Hossam el-Hamalawy. CC BY-SA 2.0.

Ashraf faces an uphill battle in shifting widely held cultural norms. Though sexual harassment was criminalized in 2014, pervasive misogyny means victims of sexual abuse are rarely taken seriously. Moreover, a climate of stigma and shame deters many victims from accusing their aggressor publicly. Roughly 75% of men—and 84% of women—believe a woman who dresses provocatively deserves to be harassed.

“My generation often takes credit for jump-starting change all over the world,” Ashraf said, “but I kept seeing this gap within my community of young women trying to speak out against sexual harassment, and never being taken seriously.” Assault Police provided one of the only venues where victims could tell their stories and seek help without bringing Egyptian society’s scorn upon them. The groundswell of support converted the fledgling account into a nationwide movement, one that is changing the conversation about sexual violence. Nevertheless, there is much work to be done.

The case of Aya Khamees demonstrates the challenges the movement faces. When Khamess first told the police she had been gang raped, they did nothing. Only after weeks of online campaigning did the authorities arrest five suspects, but the delay allowed at least two suspects to flee the country. In a Kafkaesque turn, authorities charged Khamees herself in the trial on charges of prostitution, drug use and “violating family values.” The trial is yet to be decided, but many women understood the message. Their lives would be easier if they stayed quiet.

Still, the moment represents a #MeToo moment for the country. For the first time, women sharing stories of sexual assault are being taken seriously, and men are beginning to face consequences. After Ashraf repeated accusations against Ahmed Bassam Zaki on the Assault Police page, he was arrested by authorities.

A protest against systemic sexism. Hossam el-Hamalawy. CC BY 2.0.

For the time being, Ashraf continues passionately against this misogynistic system. So far, Assault Police has been run by her alone, but facing down such a mammoth social issue requires more than one committed activist. “I want to expand from an online platform to a full-time organization,” Ashraf said, “that can support survivors in real time by connecting them to professionals, legal aid and therapy.” Assembling such a team is no easy task, but then again, nothing about Assault Police was ever easy. And look at its success so far.

Denmark Reckons with the #MeToo Movement

November 12, 2020

Years after the #MeToo movement first began, Danish women are demanding gender equality in the workplace. After allegations of sexual harassment across multiple industries, leaders are committing to change.

Nyhavn Canal in Copenhagen, Denmark. D Rishi. CC BY 2.0.

On paper, Denmark has some of the highest markers of gender equality in the world. Around 40% of Danish parliament representatives are women, and the country’s first female prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, was appointed in 2011. Parental leave is split equally between Danish men and women, and Danish men often spend as much time caring for the home as Danish women. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report ranked Denmark as 14th globally, which means that Denmark’s gender divide is statistically very small.

Despite Denmark’s pride in gender equality, Danish women are speaking out against the misogyny and sexual harassment that permeates Danish work culture. At a comedy awards show in August, entertainment personality and host Sofie Linde broke the silence on sexism in the Danish entertainment industry in a bombshell speech. Following her speech, over 1,600 women signed a letter in support of complaints about sexual harassment in the media industry.

This public acknowledgment of sexual misconduct has emboldened more women to speak out. Over 600 doctors and medical students have signed a petition to end gender-based harassment in hospitals, universities and laboratories. In the political sphere, over 300 female politicians have called for reform, using 79 anonymous testimonies to illustrate the overt sexism that plagues the Danish government. Camilla Soee, one of the politicians spearheading this movement, told the BBC: "Once and for all, we wanted to prove that sexism and sexual harassment is part of the political environment."

Former mayor of Copenhagen Frank Jensen. Jenny Andersson. CC BY 3.0.

As these women confront the men who have both enabled and engaged in widespread sexism in the workplace, many powerful men have been pressured to step down from their positions following allegations of misconduct. The mayor of Copenhagen, Frank Jensen, resigned from office on Oct. 19, 2020, after multiple women came forward with allegations of sexual harassment. In a statement to The Copenhagen Post, Jensen said, “I want to be a positive part of the culture change process that has been launched with the second wave of MeToo. I want to go from being a part of the problem to being a part of the solution.”

The Danish pride in gender equality has led to mixed receptions of this movement. Because of the Danish perception that Denmark is gender inclusive and equitable, many Danes believe that feminism is an unnecessary movement. In a poll conducted by the YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project, only one in six Danes reported themselves as a feminist. The same poll found that two in five Danes believed that the #MeToo movement was unnecessary. As #MeToo finds new footing in Denmark, perhaps attitudes toward Danish feminism will evolve. The women leading this movement are determined to make a lasting impact in the fight for women’s rights.

Sarah Leidich

is currently an English and Film major at Barnard College of Columbia University. Sarah is inspired by global art in every form, and hopes to explore the intersection of activism, art, and storytelling through her writing.

#MeToo Movement Reaches South Korea, Shaking the Foundations of a Society in Flux

April 8, 2019

In a deeply patriarchal culture, feminist activists face constant setbacks and scrutiny.

Park Geun-hye meeting with former President Barack Obama in 2014. Republic of Korea/Jeon Han. CC BY-SA 2.0

In 2017, TIME Magazine named “The Silence Breakers” as its Person of the Year, marking the influence of the #MeToo movement and commending the women who have shattered decades of complacency regarding sexual harassment. Yet despite the movement’s place at the forefront of the American cultural zeitgeist, the effects of #MeToo are far from confined to the United States. On the other side of the globe, in South Korea, generations of women—long oppressed by the sexism that has proliferated in Korean society—are now uniting to push back against gender discrimination and question the influence of the patriarchy.

A glance at the numbers reveals the gender bias deeply embedded in Korean culture. On average, women earn 37 percent less than their male colleagues, creating the most severe gap among the 35 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Countrywide, women account for only 11 percent of managerial positions and 2.1 percent of corporate boards, in comparison to the OECD averages of 31 percent and 19 percent, respectively. In its glass ceiling index, The Economist ranks South Korea as the worst developed nation for working women.

The problem is a self-perpetuating one, as female role models in positions of power are few. In 2013, Park Geun-hye became Korea’s first female president—but far from sharing in her victory, women’s rights organizations strongly opposed her candidacy, recalling her father’s 18-year dictatorship. Only two of Park’s 19 ministers were women, and the aspects of her platform that did promote women’s rights and access were not much more progressive than those of the male presidential hopefuls she defeated. More important, Park lost all credibility when she became embroiled in an extortion scandal in 2016. In April 2018, she was found guilty of 16 out of 18 charges relating to abuse of power and coercion and sentenced to 24 years in jail.

February of that year witnessed an incident that encapsulated Korea’s suspicious attitude towards women’s liberation: Singer Son Naeun of the all-female group Apink was attacked for posting a photo on Instagram of her holding a phone case with the words “Girls can do anything.” In a culture that responds to even such minor displays of feminism with scorn and shame, sexual abuse toward women often goes unnoticed, and survivors who try to make their claims public are met with mockery.

However, despite these hostile attitudes, #MeToo principles in South Korea are finally gaining traction, and Korean women’s accounts of sexual abuse are beginning to garner at least a modicum of respect in the public eye. In January 2018, attorney Seo Ji-hyun—who had experienced years of sexual harassment at the hands of Ahn Tae-geun, the former chief of the Seoul prosecutors’ office—came forward with her allegations on the nightly news, precipitating Ahn’s two-year prison sentence for abuse of power. (He claimed not to remember the incident.) The next month, Choi Young-mi published a poem effectively accusing 85-year-old poet Ko Un of molestation, coerced sex, and harassment. The piece, titled “Monster,” has since gone viral.

The ensuing wave of sexual abuse allegations reached into the hundreds, with presidential hopeful Ahn Hee-jung and award-winning movie director Kim Ki-duk among the accused. Throughout 2018, both traditional and social media networks grew increasingly saturated with talk of societal change, and issues of gender discrimination entered public discourse. Online profiles owned by male and female Koreans alike sported the English-language hashtags #MeToo and #WithYou.

In March 2018, the burgeoning movement reached a watershed moment: a marathon protest in downtown Seoul, during which nearly 200 women publicly shared their stories of sexual harassment for 2018 consecutive minutes. In May, 15,000 people turned out to Daehangno in central Seoul to attend a rally for government accountability on sex crimes; a follow-up in July brought around 60,000, and continuing protests have earned a nickname that translates as “Uncomfortable Courage.”

Gwanghwamun Gate, at the edge of the plaza where almost 200 women shared their experiences with sexual assault as part of a massive protest. Dickson Phua. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Younger generations have been at the forefront of the movement, and some have pushed for change specifically within the culture of schools. Using the hashtag #SchoolMeToo, students at more than 65 Korean schools have come forward with allegations of verbal and physical sexual abuse by teachers. Their stories led to several criminal investigations, and in February of this year, a former middle school teacher was sentenced to a year and a half in prison on charges of repeated assault. In response to the multiple allegations, hundreds of female students turned out for a march in downtown Seoul, which culminated in a gathering outside the presidential palace to protest inadequate responses to abuse.

The Blue House, Seoul’s presidential residence, where students gathered to protest the lack of response to sexual abuse. Julio Martínez. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

On the legislative side, there are signs of incremental change. As of September 2018, maintenance staff in Seoul are now required to check public restrooms daily for hidden cameras, which are often used to secretly record footage of women that is later sold to porn websites. The administration of President Moon Jae-in, who was elected following Park’s impeachment, has announced extensions to the statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases, and a process for anonymous reporting of sexual assault crimes.

Despite progress, activists continue to face persecution. For instance, in the city of Gwangju, where 11 teachers and the principal at one school were criminally charged with sexual abuse, a newspaper editorial questioned the value of the movement and accused students of undermining teachers’ authority. Progressive politicians, such as Shin Ji-ye, a 28-year-old Green Party leader who ran for mayor on a feminist platform last June and finished impressively in fourth, may usher in more substantial shifts. For now, isolated policy decisions and grassroots uprisings are chipping away at the inequities entrenched in Korean ways of life—and #MeToo, from one side of the world to another, continues to stake a claim against centuries of injustice.

TALYA PHELPS hails from the wilds of upstate New York, but dreams of exploring the globe. As former editor-in-chief at the student newspaper of her alma mater, Vassar College, and the daughter of a journalist, she hopes to follow her passion for writing and editing for many years to come. Contact her if you're looking for a spirited debate on the merits of the em dash vs. the hyphen.