Harassment Map: An initiative to empower Egyptian women

While working with one of the civil society organisations in Egypt in 2005, American citizen Rebecca Chao and her three Egyptian colleagues were subjected to a tremendous amount of sexual harassment on a daily basis. 

"What disturbed us in particular was that no one helped us. These things happen in any country, anywhere, and at anytime, but when it happens and no one helps you, it's very scary," she adds.

Instead of waiting for the government to take action against this phenomenon, however, Chao, along with EngyGhezlan, AmalFahmy, and Sawsan Gad, thought of launching the Harassment Map, as an urgent and practical step against sexual harassment.The organisation operates using FrontlineSMS and Ushahidi free of charge, two programmes that can be linked to create a system that receives anonymous reports and subsequently creates maps for areas where sexual harassment occurs.

Since 97 percent of Egyptians - half of them women - have mobile phones, they can easily access the organisation's guidelines, including the Ushahidi maps. This application allows women to report sexual harassment through SMS, Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail. The report includes information about the incident, as well as the location in which it happened. Women also receive tips on how to react in untoward situations.

The organisation's volunteers comb the streets and meet citizens in places where sexual harassment reports were made in order to mobilise the community against the phenomenon, and tospeak up and act out against sexual harassment.

Change has already begun to appear on the streets of Egypt, as the volunteers who go on field awareness campaigns in residential areas or neighbourhoods report that approximately eight out of every 10 people have responded to them and agreed at the end of the conversation that they should confront harassers.