Ghozlan, Engy Ayman

Engy Ayman Ghozlan is a project director for the Making Egypt Safer for Women program of the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights (ECWR). Charged with implementing the center's strategies in their campaign against sexual harassment, Ghozlan has worked with the media to raise awareness of the problem. In this role, she has become the voice and face that many associate with the effort to end sexual harassment on the streets of Egypt.

Ghozlan was born in Cairo in 1985. She graduated from Cairo University in 2007 with a baccalaureate degree in mass communication. Troubled by her silence in response to the sexual harassment that she endured, she decided that action was the solution. This decision led her to ECWR, whose campaign against sexual harassment was already in process.

Becoming aware of the paucity of data on sexual harassment, ECWR launched its campaign against sexual harassment in 2005 with a pilot study that would allow it to understand the scope of the harassment Egyptian women were exposed to on Egyptian streets. The survey revealed that women of all ages and social classes endured inappropriate touching, verbal taunts, and other forms of harassment. Nearly one-third of the respondents reported being the victim of harassment daily, but few of them bothered to report the offenses, as Egyptian society, including the police and legal system, often blames women for inviting their harassment. The survey, which included more than 2,800 women from all around Cairo, the Egyptian capital, and five other Egyptian governorates, also made clear that many women accepted the guilt imposed by their culture and blamed themselves for the insults and unwanted touching.

ECWR decided to approach the problem by targeting all of Egyptian society-persuading women that [Page 617]they did not deserve to be harassed and educating men on the psychological and sociological effects of sexual harassment on women.

This was the environment into which Ghozlan entered when she joined ECWR. She began holding awareness days at youth centers, coordinating an increasing number of volunteers, and undertaking outreach and education with schools and the media.

Because Egypt lacked a clear, legal definition of sexual harassment, it was important to raise awareness that sexual harassment encompasses any uninvited behavior that is sexual in nature and makes women feel uncomfortable or unsafe. Labeling the campaign to do this “Making Egypt's Streets Safe for All” attracted media attention. Throughout 2008, Ghozlan appeared on television and was quoted in newspapers and online as she gave interviews and issued press statements on behalf of ECWR.

Ghozlan became known for her readiness to speak the truth without sugarcoating it. When Middle East Online asked Ghozlan about Egypt's Ministry of Interior's statement that 20,000 women are raped each year in Egypt, she answered that a more accurate figure would be 10 times that number, as most rape victims do not report attacks. She also reminded her questioner that in a 2007 ECWR study, 83 percent of Egyptian women and 98 percent of foreign women in Egypt reported being harassed. Ghozlan made clear to Daily News Egypt that two-thirds of men participating in the ECWR survey admitted to routinely harassing women.

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