Muna Al Fuzai

When I was a kid, I was great fan of the popular US series "The Cosby Show". I loved to watch Bill Cosby and his perfect family, and over the years, this memory remained in my mind, until it crashed when the actor was accused of sexual harassment and with the testimony of many women about his behavior over the years. Recently, a major Hollywood film producer named Harvey Weinstein was accused by several female actresses of sexual harassment in return for giving them roles in his films. As a producer, he had the upper hand, but not anymore.

What is the situation in Middle Eastern societies, which some people like to describe as conservative and virtuous? Unfortunately, it is worse and darker than what we assume or hope, because sexual harassment has a contradiction between the East and the West. There is a great gap between the Arab and Western worlds in combating this scourge. The West criminalizes those who commit this awful crime, condemn it and disclose it publicly regardless of the attacker's position or rank in the society and how famous, rich or influential he is.

It is regrettable that so-called community traditions in Eastern societies still cherish masculinity and consider it a priority over femininity. It is even worse that some Muslim societies continue to practice female circumcision, which is a crime, under the pretext that it is part of their customs and for the protection of women. Some societies still discuss whether exposing a women's hand or face is a sin or not! Can we even imagine that in such societies - that are completely backward - can allow or accept a woman talking about being raped or sexually or verbally harassed by her boss, colleague, an influential official or relative?

The answer is no. It is unfortunate that society blames women when they are harassed because they are deemed the cause of seduction! The calamity is that those who have been subjected to harassment cannot talk about it if the harasser is a relative - whether a brother or father - or an influential or powerful person, because their word will be the one that is heard, justified and possibly excused. The accusing woman will be punished by the sexual abuser or even killed for daring to complain, and there is no neutral body to protect her.

I hope the interior ministry will establish a neutral body like the cybercrime department to receive and follow up such complaints, but their work must be confidential and should protect the woman and her evidence provided to them, and not make it easy prey for the public or negligently expose it on social media. It is time to spread this message to make such an act a shameful crime.

By Muna Al-Fuzai

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