Harassment victim gets face slashed by released harasser

CAIRO – 15 October 2017: After 2 years of being harassed in a Cairo mall, Somaya Tarek, the victim, was once again assaulted by her harasser.

A photo of her showed that she was assaulted with a knife, which left a scar on her face.

The harasser, who was arrested after the incident and sentenced to one month in prison from a Cairo Misdemeanor Court, returned and cut her face with a knife out of revenge.

The photo of the woman circulated on social media, igniting a wave of indignation.

The police managed to arrest the man, who admitted that he had committed the incident before the public prosecution took over the investigation.

The original harassment incident dates back to October 2015 when a leaked security video from a Cairo mall showed a man slapping the victim following a brief argument.

Tarek appeared in a number of TV shows and said that the man sexually harassed her before attacking her.

Controversial media figure Reham Saeed interviewed Tarek on her show and showed private photos of her, blaming the harassment incident on Tarek's "indecent" clothes and behavior.

The public shaming sent Tarek into a spiral. She called into program after program, crying and claiming that Saeed's production staff had stolen the private photographs off of her phone when she left it unattended during the taping of the show.

The widely circulated percentage of sexual harassment of women in Egypt is “exaggerated,” said a member of Egypt’s National Council for Women (NCW).

However, though there is no exact figure, it is obvious that a large number of Egyptian women have experienced some form of sexual harassment.