A woman that goes by the handle @Beebishay on IG, and her friend, had arrived at the Egyptian Airport from Beirut and were standing in line waiting to pick up their suitcases when one of them notices a man standing further behind in line and taking pictures of their reels with his mobile phone. Both women ran after the alleged suspect and, when they caught him, confronted him about his unbidden transgression, only for him to deny their allegations. They asked that he pull out his phone and prove his innocence.
Police officers and security personnel found two women and a man at each other’s throats and started congregating around them then conducted all three of them into an office where a supposed General burst into the victim’s face and blamed her for her “unjustified” discomposure and annoyance. The General then confiscated the phone from the alleged perpetrator and kept scrolling through the photo gallery, that supposedly contained pictures of similar nature of other women, without doing anything, and it gets worse when the phone gets passed from one police officer to another, all 10 of whom occupying one small police office with the two women standing among them.
The women, in her utter dismay at the humiliation that she and her friend fell under, got out of the office, took out her own phone, and filmed a video of the incident, with a grief-stricken face that is blotched from all the tears and voice gone hoarse from all the shouting and screaming. She then posted the video on instagram and succeeded at provoking public rage. Thanks to the power of social media, she posted another video at 2:00 am to clear up the misinformation she’d spoken out in her first video, claiming that those “police officers” were really so, and that the actual Airport police, upon knowing of the incident and the internet outrage it sparked, took care of the whole matter and were said to have been very respectful, accommodating, and dutiful.
What’s worse than being sexually harassed is reaching out to those who are supposed to defend you and being met with nothing but invalidation, nullification and belittlement. Do not blame women for not speaking up about their debasing encounters when they have no back to lean on and an entire people that readily twists matters to make victims out to be victimizers and glosses over the fact that there is a perpetrator out them who should be convicted and held accountable for their crimes.