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Tuesday, June 9, 2009

On the Subject of Sexual Offenses



I think it's fair to say that sexual offenses have a variety of underlying causes with some of the more common ones being arousal, anger, dominance, and abuse. There are sexual offenders who are sexually aroused by violent acts against women. And among those are cognitively challenged men who have a distorted sense of values. They believe women like to be raped or that women think of sexual harassment as a compliment. This is the kind of thinking that often leads to date rape. On the other hand there exists people like the Maadi rapist who is a repeat offender. He often has difficulty establishing or maintaining relationships, particularly with women. He is introverted and likely has a variety of problems, both social and physical. But I think the most common type of sexual offender in Egypt is the one motivated by anger. His acts of sexual harassment are essentially emotional outbursts accompanied by a serious lack of self control. Usually, this is the most dangerous and violent sexual offender. This is the type of rapist that will randomly pull a woman into a vehicle in broad daylight to cop a feel at her breasts or genitals. He is the same guy that employs the most vulgar and colourful linguistic abilities, and the same one who falls under the influence of the mob mentality as in the infamous case of the Eid sexual harassment incidents. He is the guy who is not fearful of the consequences and is aware that the law and public perception works in his favour.


I really don't think a statement on a t-shirt, or a Facebook group, is going to be very effective, especially against that type of sexual offender. It doesn't make much sense to compare the victim of a sexual crime to the offender's mother/sister/daughter/wife because a sexual offender does not see this the same way the average person does. In the eyes of a sexual offender, all women are targets, with the exception of his various female family members. He doesn't see them as women, rather he defines them by their role. In addition, gender bias bonds are incredibly stronger than familial bonds. Victims of sexual crimes are often shunned by their male family members. Many are told that it is "their fault for being in the wrong place at the wrong time" or "that they brought it on themselves by wearing inappropriate attire".

A deeper more seeded cause of sexual harassment is the fact that forgiveness is readily available from God. Regardless of what our denomination is, we are taught at a young age that when people make mistakes, all is forgiven if we repent. I have personally met many men of that mindset. They believe it is fine to sexually assault a women if it means that in the end they will repent and everything will be forgiven. Because God does not dole out punishment now, so they see this as an opportunity to binge on crime before the deadline so to speak. The only thing that will deter that kind of behaviour is a very strict and properly applied law. Unlike God, the judicial process has no room for forgiveness; criminals can repent all they want in prison. Sadly, in Egypt, although there is a law (insufficient although it may seem) that punishes sexual offenders, that law is often not enforced. Police officers and other authority figures take complaints lightly and quite often aggressively discourage women from coming forward and proceeding with a complaint.

And finally, the root of the problem is a very simple fact, and that is in the Middle East women are perceived as second class citizens. Arab men in general, tend to believe that they are superior to women, whatever way they justify it, be it religious, social, or what have you. And I am not generalizing either. I realize that there are very decent men still living in Egypt. They think in a different way. They believe in equal rights and everything but there are very very few of them. Regrettably, the majority of Arab men fall in the other category.


Like I said before, desperate times call for desperate measures.