Operation room to address harassment during Eid al-Adha: NCW

CAIRO – 31 August 2017: In preparation for Eid al-Adha the National Council for Women (NCW) announced that a special operations room will operate 24-hours to receive complaints from women during the holiday period. According to a statement released Wednesday on the NCW’s official Facebook page, the operations room will be administered by the council’s Women’s Complaints Office to receive grievances regarding harassment and offer legal aid to girls and women.



The operation room can be reached through the hotline 15115 or on the following cell phone numbers: 01121997477 and 01007525600. Complaints can also be received on the email: omb.office@yahoo.com

The NCW social workers and volunteers will join the police forces in the streets during the Eid, especially in the most crowded areas, and will directly coordinate with the Violence against Women Unit at the Ministry of Interior. Furthermore, lawyers will join the operations room to provide legal advice and/or legal representation. And social workers will provide psychosocial support to survivors as needed.

Incidents of harassment are witnessed in Egypt during holidays on the streets, crowded malls and cinemas. Last June, during Eid al-Fitr, about seventeen men were arrested for harassing women in several governorates including Cairo and Alexandria. The Egyptian law set penalties for harassment, including one year imprisonment for verbal harassment, while physical harassment penalty ranges between 5-7 years of imprisonment.

The NCW was established by Presidential Decree No. 90 of 2000 as an independent institution directly affiliated to the president. The office receives the complaints of girls and women related to cases of domestic violence, violence in the workplace, sexual violence and personal issues such as marriage and divorce. The council has a dedicated Complaints Office for women, which was founded in conjunction with the NCW in 2000.

The Women’s Complaints Office represents the vision of the NCW, which aims to empower Egyptian women and support their efficient participation in society by developing policies on female empowerment and advocating for their integration into the state’s social and economic development plans.

The council also reviews existing laws from a gender perspective and proposes amendments to guarantee that they are free of any discrimination against girls and women.