The Other Side of Me

It happened again, and it will keep happening. It happens every day to almost every lady. It keeps getting worse, it keeps spreading. Sexual harassment has changed in the past 20 years from an individual act to a social phenomenon to a social epidemic. There is no one reason why sexual harassment is very widespread in Egypt, but no one can claim it's merely sexual. It's not just sexual because it's practiced by people of all ages from young children to old men, married and unmarried, rich and poor, those who have a normal sexual life and those who don't. It's more of a violent act from those who think themselves strong to those whom they feel are weaker. A few days ago, ex-president Adly Mansour issued a pack of laws that punishes sexual harassers. The laws that were one of the strongest in the country's history punishes those who plead guilty with a fine or imprisonment between 1000 to 50,000 pounds and 6 months to 5 years in prison. Back then I could...

The first baby, born to an upper middle class family. They're happy to have her, but they wait for the boy who's going to run the business, carry the name, be the owner of all that was made especially for him. A few years later he arrives, and they all celebrate, including his sister. They grow up and go to school, same school, but different allowance. The boy was always given more money, he was always given whatever he wanted. The girl was never treated badly, but the boy was always treated better. Her curfew was always hours before her younger brother, and whenever she asked why she was told that girls shouldn't stay out late. Her brother starts smoking at a very young age, she knows about it but decides to stay silent, because she knows she will be blamed for not minding her own business. Her mother finds out, but never tells him stop or tells the father anything about it. She grows up and becomes a beautiful young lady, just like all the other girls she's a...

Born a daughter instead of a son, what a shame! Who's going to carry the father's name? Who's going to make it eternal? Have more kids, more daughters, some more, even more, it's finally a son. How can all those kids live a humane life with their father's salary? Not possible! No need to educate the girls, they'll get married and have husbands to feed them anyway, only educate the son. She goes out, she gets sexually harassed, almost raped. She can't tell, everyone will blame her. The criminal will never be punished, because if she tells, what would people say? She'll live with that secrete forever, it will stay deep in her, and will remain only there. No one should ever know about it, nothing has changed anyway. The first man who asks for her hand, she will marry. Her father has a huge load, he has to give her away to the first man who knocks his door to decrease his awful load. She gets married, the man doesn't earn enough money, she has to wo...