This paper is about the struggle to combat gender-based violence in public space in Egypt through the sustained collective action of vigilante groups who organically formed to respond to the increasing encroachment on women in public space from 2011 onwards. The study examines the emergence of a distinct form of collective action (informal youth-led activism aimed at addressing sexual violence in public space) at a very distinct historical juncture in the country’s history: the phase after the ousting of President Mubarak in February 2011 through what became known as the 25th of January Revolution and up to the ousting of President Morsi in what became controversially known as the 30th of June Revolution of 2013.
Through a process of broad-based consultation on what constitutes effective interventions and which initiatives meet this criteria, three cases representing different models of effective interventions were selected: Shoft Taharosh, Bassma and Opantish. Some of the indicators of their success include: high levels of volunteer recruitment, broad-based community endorsement, recognition by the local and international media of these actors as authoritative sources of knowledge on the incidents of gender-based violence in public space, and the rescue of women who are targets of assault.
The report shows in detail how men’s involvement in gender-based violence work, completely unconventional in the case of Egypt, de-ghettoised women’s issues and helped build a constituency for gender justice. The report also highlights the role of collective action, as opposed to simply a critical mass of men, in enabling effective interventions on the part of these three initiatives. Finally, the report argues that these initiatives in conjunction with others may develop into a new movement of major influence and political weight, provided a number of agential and structural factors allow this.
Policy recommendations:
- International policymakers and donors: The emergence of these alternative, unconventional informal youth-led initiatives that have been so successful in addressing gender-based violence offers unlimited opportunities for informing donors’ own practices and policies not only for Egypt but more broadly for its global framework for combating GBV. Moreover, international actors can also play a positive role in creating forums and spaces to enable exchange of experience across initiatives engaging men in gender-based violence from Latin America, Africa, South America, Asia. In view of the importance of the collective nature of these initiatives, it is critically important that donors funding policies promote collective action across the initiatives rather than for supporting individual capacity-building of the initiatives which often, if provided in large amounts of money, transforms them into professionalised entities disconnected from their constituencies.
- Egyptian government: National authorities should take measures to activate article 11 of the proposed constitution which stipulates that ’the state shall also be committed to protecting women against all forms of violence’. These measures include: (1) the new Egyptian parliament (2014) to pass a new law combating gender-based violence in public and private spaces; (2) the Ministry of Interior to initiate security sector reform with respect to the attitudes and practices of its officers, from the lowest to its highest tiers. Moreover, the Egyptian government should secure the freedom of association of all informal youth initiatives and recognise them as viable actors even if they do not become legal entities.
- For the youth-based initiatives: There is a need to focus on internal capacity-building while being cautious not to adopt the culture of NGO professionalism which often leads to an elite disconnect with the grass roots level. In view of the new political phase which Egypt is going through, strategies will need to be adapted to both engaging the street, political parties, civil society as well as the government.
Initiatives will need to incorporate victims of sexual violence in any transitional justice plans. In order to support movement-building, initiatives should find a space and time that is convenient for the different initiatives to touch base and catch up on a regular basis, irrespective of whether there is a need to work collectively or not. Finally, initiatives should seek to build cross-country links with other actors who have worked on gender-based violence with men.