I was walking down a Cairo street, like I usually do, trying to reach my destination.
I try to control my anger, I try to hold back the tears.
Like I usually do.
I try to block the words they say and the looks they give...the sounds they make..
Like they usually do.
"I want to have my penis inside you"
"Look at that ass"
"You have such luscious boobs/lips"
And the dirty, dirty looks on their dirty, dirty looking faces and they make me want to slap them. But I keep the rage within me.
Like I usually do.
I want to complain, I want to explain to people how demeaning and degrading that feels, how it generates so much negative energy within me. Such disdain.
It makes me forget all the good things I know about myself, that I am a smart young woman, that I am a respectable and respected young woman. That I am a lot better than those sleazy men. And if anything, yes, I should look down on them rather than be objectified by them.
I was driving back home, with my cousin, again, like I usually do. It's one of the narrower streets, barely two lanes wide.
Him and his friend decide it would be fun if they drive next to us in their big SUV and swerve their car closer to ours on the small street. I try not to panic, and not to look to my right. I turn the music up so I don't hear what they're saying; infuriating. They've been following us for a while, and I sense it's becoming more dangerous.
I change routes and they're still following us.
I enter my grandmother's building's garage. Stay in there for a while, as I cautiously make my way out, they were gone.
I am lucky. To have never been touched by such sordid beings, to have never had an encounter per se and for that I am thankful. But this doesn't mean it has never happened, because it has. It has happened and it has happened a lot. All forms of sexual harassment, even veiled girls get harassed. (so it's never about what you were wearing) and it happens all day (it's not about you staying out late)
I don't know why it happens, but I know that it should end.
I should be able to walk down the street knowing that I am worth much, much more than to be objectified, and than to be forced to bear with it because if I take it to the police station, I will get harassed, again, by the police officer.
I try to control my anger, I try to hold back the tears.
Like I usually do.
I try to block the words they say and the looks they give...the sounds they make..
Like they usually do.
"I want to have my penis inside you"
"Look at that ass"
"You have such luscious boobs/lips"
And the dirty, dirty looks on their dirty, dirty looking faces and they make me want to slap them. But I keep the rage within me.
Like I usually do.
I want to complain, I want to explain to people how demeaning and degrading that feels, how it generates so much negative energy within me. Such disdain.
It makes me forget all the good things I know about myself, that I am a smart young woman, that I am a respectable and respected young woman. That I am a lot better than those sleazy men. And if anything, yes, I should look down on them rather than be objectified by them.
I was driving back home, with my cousin, again, like I usually do. It's one of the narrower streets, barely two lanes wide.
Him and his friend decide it would be fun if they drive next to us in their big SUV and swerve their car closer to ours on the small street. I try not to panic, and not to look to my right. I turn the music up so I don't hear what they're saying; infuriating. They've been following us for a while, and I sense it's becoming more dangerous.
I change routes and they're still following us.
I enter my grandmother's building's garage. Stay in there for a while, as I cautiously make my way out, they were gone.
I am lucky. To have never been touched by such sordid beings, to have never had an encounter per se and for that I am thankful. But this doesn't mean it has never happened, because it has. It has happened and it has happened a lot. All forms of sexual harassment, even veiled girls get harassed. (so it's never about what you were wearing) and it happens all day (it's not about you staying out late)
I don't know why it happens, but I know that it should end.
I should be able to walk down the street knowing that I am worth much, much more than to be objectified, and than to be forced to bear with it because if I take it to the police station, I will get harassed, again, by the police officer.
