Making Egypt's Streets Safe for Women - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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making it far less likely that she will encounter the verbal abuse or physical and sexual assaults that women have come to expect on Cairo’s streets.
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“I am a woman from Egypt, so I face harassment in the streets daily,” Ms. Helal, 29, said in a phone interview this week.
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She has to be acutely aware of her surroundings every time she photographs in a crowd in public, constantly evaluate her safety and make sure there is a clear escape route in case she is attacked. While public harassment of women has been commonplace, it was not until an incident four years ago, while covering a peaceful protest on International Women’s Day, that she started documenting these encounters. It was a few months after the start of the Arab Spring in Egypt, and women went to Tahrir Square to hand out flowers in support of women’s rights.
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“A group of men came and told them they should not be there and should be home taking care of their families,” Ms. Helal said. “After that they attacked the women and harassed them.
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“I decided to do this story because I don’t feel safe on the streets walking in front of a man,” she said. “There are no other photographers interested in working on these subjects here, and it is important to speak about these issues.”
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She interviewed many women who said they had been attacked in Egypt, some of whom were reluctant to speak out, much less be photographed