Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions from verbal transgressions to sexual abuse or assault. Harassment can occur in many different social settings such as the workplace, the home, school, churches, etc. Harassers or victims may be of any gender.
Street harassment is a form of harassment, primarily sexual harassment that consists of unwanted flirtatious comments, provocative gestures, honking, wolf-whistlings, indecent exposures, stalking, persistent sexual advances, and touching by strangers, in public areas such as streets, shopping malls and public transportation.
Blank Noise is a community/public art project that seeks to confront street harassment, commonly known as eve teasing, in India. The project, initiated by Jasmeen Patheja in August 2003, started out as a student project at Srishti School of Art Design and Technology in Bangalore and has since spread out to other cities in India.
Zohra Yousuf Daoud is an American TV celebrity, radio show host, journalist of Afghan descent. In December 1972 Daoud became the only woman to this date ever to be crowned Miss Afghanistan, months before a bloodless coup forced King Zahir Shah into exile.
Women's rights in Afghanistan have been varied throughout history. Women officially gained equality under the 1964 constitution. However these rights were taken away in the 1990s through different temporary rulers such as the Taliban during civil war. Especially during the latter's rule, women had very little to no freedom, specifically in terms of civil liberties. Ever since the Taliban regime was removed in late 2001, women's rights have gradually improved under the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and women are once again de jure equal to men under the 2004 constitution, which was largely based on that from 1964. However, their rights are still complicated by a reactionary view on women by certain classes of school, particularly ruralites, which continue to cause international concern.
Maryam Durani is an Afghan activist and women's advocate. In 2012 she received the International Women of Courage Award.
The Boxing Girls of Kabul is a 2012 Canadian documentary film directed by Ariel Nasr which follows young women boxers and their coach, Sabir Sharifi, at Afghanistan’s female boxing academy, as these athletes face harassment and threats in their efforts to represent their country in international competition and attempt to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Operation Anti Sexual Harassment, is an activist group in Cairo, Egypt, whose goal is to prevent sexual harassment and assault, and in particular the mass sexual assaults that occur during protests and religious festivals. The group is known for intervening in assaults by mobs in Cairo's Tahrir Square and is one of several that have begun to organize against sexual harassment of women in Tahrir since the 2011 Egyptian revolution.
Sahar Gul is an Afghan teenager who was subjected to torture and abuse by her husband's family in the town of Puli Khumri when she was illegally married as a child bride. Her case became notable in Afghanistan and internationally when she was rescued in late 2011. The Guardian said that the case of Gul "horrified Afghanistan and prompted a bout of national soul-searching". Three of her in-laws were found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but later freed after an appeals court voided their convictions. American Attorney Kimberley Motley represented Gul in Supreme Court upon hearing of the in-laws release. Gul became the first victim of a crime that was represented by an Attorney for a criminal proceeding. In a landmark decision the Supreme Court, and after the case was decided twice by the Appellate Court, Gul's in-laws, brother and husband who were never originally tried were convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. The court also agreed that Gul could sue all parties for civil compensation. Gul is recovering in a women's shelter and says that she had ambitions to become a politician and stop other women suffering as she did.
HARASSmap is a mobile and online technology non-profit that uses interactive mapping to try to reduce the social acceptability of sexual harassment throughout Egypt.
Rape is a major issue in Afghanistan. A number of human rights organizations have criticized the country's rape laws and their enforcement.
Traditional gender roles in Egypt are prevalent and clearly defined. These roles are largely associated with traditional Islamic family structures, wherein women's roles are closely tied to the domestic sphere and men's roles tied to the public sphere. Gender roles are based on assumed biological differences between the sexes and can lead to dramatically different life experiences as well as opportunities and outcomes for individuals. Consequently, when looking at a number of indicators, women often find themselves disadvantaged relative to men.
Egyptian Streets is an English language independent news website and organization founded in July 2012 by Egyptian journalist Mohamed Khairat as a blog, but later developed into a media company in March 2014. It claims to be the number one English media outlet in Egypt by reach. In February 2015, more than 800,000 visited the website.
Farkhunda Malikzada, commonly referred to as Farkhunda, was a 27-year-old woman who was publicly lynched by an angry mob in Kabul, Afghanistan, on March 19, 2015. A large crowd of Muslims formed in the streets around her claiming that she had burned the Quran, and for that, her accusers announced that she must be sent to Hell right away. Police initially tried to protect her and disperse the radical mob, but were overwhelmed by the mob's number and fury.
The mass sexual assault of women in public has been documented in Egypt since 2005, when Egyptian security forces and their agents were accused of using it as a weapon against female protesters during a political demonstration in Tahrir Square, Cairo on 25 May. The behavior spread, and by 2012 sexual assault by crowds of young men was seen at protests and festivals in Egypt.
Humira Saqib is an Afghan journalist and women's human rights activist. She is one of the leading activists who through her writings in the magazine Negah-e-Zan and in Afghan Women's News Agency, has been protesting against extreme forms of harassment against women in her radically Islamic country. She pleads that the parliament should enact laws for "Elimination of Violence against Women and enforce it vigorously.... Education, is also a key to changing mentalities around women's roles in society." She is now pursuing her efforts to further women's rights by working for the women's news agency as a writer and editor.
Girls for Gender Equity(GGE) is a Brooklyn-based, inter-generational non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening local communities by creating opportunities for young women and girls to live self-determined lives. To achieve this goal, GGE practices a bio-psycho-social-cultural approach to tackling the many obstacles young women and girls face such as sexism, racial inequality, homophobia, transphobia, and sexual harassment.
The Womanity Foundation, or Womanity, is an independent private foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and was established in 2005 by Swiss entrepreneur and philanthropist Yann Borgstedt. Guided by a vision of a world, where all women and men have equal and full social, economic and political rights.
Martha Farrell was a passionate civil society leader, renowned and respected in India and around the world for her work on women’s rights, gender equality and adult education. She was among 14 people killed in a terrorist attack on a guest house in Kabul, Afghanistan on 13 May 2015. She had been leading a gender training workshop with the Aga Khan Foundation in Kabul at the time of the attack.
Shafiqa Habibi is a journalist, television anchor, activist and politician from Afghanistan. She is known for her work to support women journalists, and for her 2004 candidacy for Vice President of Afghanistan as the running mate of Abdul Rashid Dostum.
