Sexual Harrassment in Egypt

Click here to read 400 Teen Boys Arrested for Flirting

How would you like to be arrested for flirting? It seems like there is a hard-to-define line between sexual harassment and "boys being boys." In the case of this article, which takes place in largely Islamic Egypt, I see this as a huge victory for women who, for most of their lives, have to put up with this sort of treatment without any kind of recourse.

On the other hand, it seems that the police jumped from one extreme to the other - going from few sexual harassment convictions to 400 arrests is a pretty broad leap! I would be curious to see where all these charges came from so suddenly, but the article doesn't provide much background information, other than to say many men were arrested on a Muslim holiday.

As a woman, I feel privileged and grateful to live in a place like the U.S. where people are made aware of injustices like sexual harassment and women are given many opportunities to succeed - in education, professionally, and personally. I see a very stark difference between our society and an Islamic society which often tries to keep women in narrowly defined roles with limited opportunities to pursue things outside of these roles.

So, given my limited background knowledge on this article, I have to say that overall I want to say "Yea!" to all these men being held accountable for actions that they probably have been perpetrating for years and never been disciplined for. As a teacher, I see it as an important part of my role to establish clear boundaries and define the line between appropriate and inappropriate behavior for my students.