Invitation to Let
Your Voice be Heard
As we all know, sexual harassment has been a growing problem in Egypt over the last couple of years, especially in Cairo. UN Women reported earlier this year that over 99% of Egyptian women have suffered from sexual harassment in their lifetime, and 50% suffer from sexual harassment every day.
We believe this is the perfect time to have women take charge in the discussion on sexual harassment, and to show that the myth of the women being to blame is false, that instead it happens to women of all classes and layers of society, no matter how she dresses or behaves.
The goal is to share the video documentary online in Egypt, to help shape the discussion on this issue, so it can be turned around from victim-blaming to finally blaming the perpetrators, and finding sensible solutions.
We Need Your Help!
We are searching for around 25 Egyptian women from all backgrounds, all ages, and all areas of the city to participate in this interview documentary.
We want to talk to you about your experiences with sexual harassment. The interview will be about what happened to you specifically, and then turn to your thoughts on why there is so much harassment in the city, why men think they have the right to harass, what you think the solutions are, and anything else you would like to add! The interviews will be much like the interviews of the Moroccan women in this video.
If you prefer to not talk about what happened to you specifically, but you still feel like you have a lot to say about the issue, you are also more than welcome!
Why Participate?
Because it’s time for change, staying quiet and ignoring the harassers has not made them stop, and the findings of the UN Women report points out that 82.6% of women said they felt unsafe in the streets, it’s time to speak out and help make Egypt safer for women.
You can sign up for an interview time between Saturday, December 21 and Wednesday January 1. Interviews will be held between 5 and 8 in Dokki. We will email you the details when you sign up.
Let’s stand together to fight this problem!
This documentary is done with the generous help from HarassMap, Resala Charity, and Heya.
Location
The interviews will be done at the office of Resala Charity in Dokki, on the 8th floor, in a studio much like the images above. The interview will last between 15 minutes to an hour, depending on how much you would like to share.
We understand this is a sensitive topic, so if you prefer to stay anonymous, we will turn the camera more away from your face and use the lighting to hide your identity like the example on the right. We feel it is important to still show a bit of your clothing, so the viewer of the video can relate to you as a person. We will show you what it looks like on the camera before you begin, and we will only record if you feel comfortable.
Schedule
As you can see, we are running on a tight schedule. Please take a look at the available interview times and let us know which one works for you.
| Saturday | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Dec 21 5 5:30 6 6:30 7 7:30 |
Dec 22 5 5:30 6 6:30 7 7:30 |
Dec 23 5 5:30 6 6:30 7 7:30 |
Dec 24 5 5:30 6 6:30 7 7:30 |
Dec 25 No interviews |
Dec 26 No interviews |
Dec 27 No interviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 28 No interviews |
Dec 29 5 5:30 6 6:30 7 7:30 |
Dec 30 5 5:30 6 6:30 7 7:30 |
Dec 31 Happy New Year |
Jan 1 5 5:30 6 6:30 7 7:30 |
Jan 2 No interviews |
Jan 3 No interviews |
About us
About Tinne
My name is Tinne Van Loon, I am a documentary photographer currently in a Master program in the Netherlands. Before I started this graduate study, I spent the first half of this year in Cairo, studying Arabic and working on photography projects. While I was out photographing a story in Seyyida Zeinab last summer I was assaulted by a group of men, so the issue of sexual harassment is also very personal for me.
Earlier this year, I published the photo book The Culture of Hasanpura, visualizing the lives of residents of a slum in Jaipur, India for the Belgian NGO Opus III. They use the photo book as an awareness and fundraising tool. Previous work include photo stories documenting life in Palestine, ranging from a story about a women’s rally racing team, a fair trade almond harvest, to a Bedouin tribe facing demolition orders.
I am the producer, organizer, and videographer for this documentary.
About Shrouk
My name is Shrouk Khairy Gamil, I am an Arabic language instructor at Arabeya Arabic Language School. I met Tinne at Arabeya in January 2013 as she was one of my students; we’ve been friends ever since. Before my work with Arabeya, I presented a weekly one hour radio show at the Egyptian Democratic Academy discussing the international media’s perception of the Egyptian revolution of 2011. I also worked as an English-Arabic translator for USAID and the FAO of the United Nations.
Growing up in Egypt, I have witnessed sexual harassment throughout my life, including some incidents on the micro bus and metro. I am tired of the violence and I believe it’s time to put an end to this.
For this documentary I am the co-organizer, interviewer, and translator.
Contact
If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at hello@tinnevanloon.com or call +20 102 739 8534 (English only, sorry).