Egypt rights group sacks secretary for sexual harassment

An Egyptian human rights organisation has sacked its secretary after two female staff members accused him of sexual harassment.

Mohammed Sayed, foundation secretary of the association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, has refused to apologise for one complaint of sexual harassment which was caught on CCTV at the foundation’s headquarters, reports Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

The issue of sexual harassment has been at the top of the agenda for Egyptian rights activists over the past couple of years, particularly since July 2020 when the Instagram account Assault Police exposed serial sex offender Ahmed Bassem Zaki of 100 sexual crimes.

A string of men were then found guilty of sexual crimes, including the Freedom of Thought and Expression’s research director who was sacked in 2020 after he posted a confession online that he had sexually harassed women.

Mohamed Nagy posted his confession and apologised after human rights defender Israa Seraj El-Din also posted a detailed account online about how he had sexually abused her.

READ: ‘The climate crisis is a human rights crisis worldwide’

At the same time a former staff member accused the association’s former director Mohamed El-Taher of verbally abusing her over gender-based discrimination and accused the organisation of not having consistent policies for combating gender-based discrimination or for holding perpetrators of sexual violence to account.

The publisher and owner of Merit Publishing House was also accused of sexual harassment whilst one of the founding members of Belady Centre for Rights and Freedoms was dismissed after he was accused of sexual harassment.

Women’s rights groups have criticised the government for not doing enough to prosecute sexual predators whilst targeting and blaming women for their behaviour.

In January this year prominent women’s rights activist Amal Fathy was sentenced to a year in prison after she posted a video on Facebook criticising the authorities’ failure to protect women from sexual harassment.