An incident of sexual harassment or rape takes place every 30 minutes in Egypt, according to statistics from the National Center for Social and Criminological Studies, which says there are 20,000 victims of rape and sexual harassment annually.
As alarming as these figures are, experts agree that official reports do not present a complete picture because rape and sexual harassment remain taboo, as the idea prevails that a woman is responsible for anything that happens to her body.
“Women rarely speak up when they are raped fear of being accused of the responsibility of what happened,” says Amal Abdel Hamid, a professor of civil law at several universities and a researcher on rape issues.
Mona Ezzat, coordinator at the Cairo-based women’s rights organization the New Woman Foundation, agrees. “Rape statistics probably account for only two percent of the actual figure because it is rare that rape victims report the incident,” Ezzat says.
A look at the crime sections of mainstream newspapers indicates that more rape crimes take place now than in previous years. Rape happens in the morning and at night. The victims are girls, as well as women. They are veiled and unveiled alike. “We couldn’t say who is more vulnerable to that crime than others," says Abdel Hamid. "Every female is in danger now.”
Rape carries many consequences, including psychological trauma for the victim and her family, as well as the the effects of physical violence suffered by the victim. Another consequence, however, is pregnancy. “A woman [in this case] would give birth to a child who would continue reminding her of this trauma,” says Ezzat.
The results of a rape pregnancy are only bad. Among other things, these pregnancies could add to Egypt’s estimated 1.5 million street children. But they are hard to avoid because rape victims are denied the right to abort these unwanted pregnancies.
Egyptian law, which has not been changed since 1937, prohibits abortion under all circumstances. “Laws 260 through 263 of the Egyptian penal code don’t include one reason legalizing abortion,” said Adel Ramadan, lawyer of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).
Abortion is considered a criminal act and women who undertake the procedure may find themselves in prison. A doctor or pharmacist who who helps a woman to have an abortion is also subject imprisonment.
The only exception is a regulation passed by the Doctor’s Syndicate approving abortion in cases where pregnancy is dangerous to the health of the mother.
Human rights activists say that prohibiting women from abortion–especially in cases of rape–is a violation of basic human rights.
Dalia Abdelhamid, a researcher at EIPR, says that “establishing the right of women to choose to terminate a pregnancy resulting from exposure to rape is a humanitarian necessity, not only a juridical principle.” Abdelhamid points out that the continued lack of these women’s rights, “reflects the dual failure of the state authorities, which failed first in the protection of women from the heinous crime of rape, and failed in maintaining the dignity of women and mental and physical health through giving them the right to terminate a pregnancy resulting from the crime."
In December 2007 MP for the National Democratic Party Mohamed Quetta called on the People’s Assembly pass a law allowing victims of rape the right to have an abortion. Quetta’s campaign came after calls from human rights activists, lead by the EIPR and the New Woman Foundation, to pass the law. “This abortion law is obligatory in a civilized society,” Quetta told Al-Masry Al-Youm.
Approval is pending on a new law giving women the right to abortion if the rape victim can prove at the police station that she was raped. In order to do so, the woman would have to head immediately to a police station and report the incident.
“She has to narrate what happened to more that five male officers, who will probably consider her a reason behind the crime and not a victim," Ezzat says.
Police would then send the victim to a forensics doctor for fact checking. The forensic doctor looks for signs of violence, obtains semen samples from her body, and, in the case of an unmarried girl, would check if she has lost her virginity. The victim would then go back to police station where the prosecutor considers the results and either gives her approval for abortion in case of pregnancy or denies it.
Though this procedure is problematic, it is being held up in the committee of legalization, headed by former Minister of Social Affairs Amal Osman. Though Quetta got the law through parliament two years ago and has also gotten approval from the Islamic Research Academy, the law is still not implemented.
Getting approval from the Islamic Research Academy is no small feat, considering that Azhar scholars are not united on abortion. “Muslim scholars are split three ways: banning abortion altogether, accepting abortion if it is before the baby has reached 120 days, and abortion before the 120 days only if needed.” says Mohamed Raafat Osman, an Azhar scholar. The 120 day mark is important in Islam because according to the hadith, God gives a baby its spirit on the 120th day after conception.
As Quetta’s law is yet to pass and abortion is still illegal, doctors recommend that a raped woman heads immediately to a pharmacy or hospital to take the "morning after pill."
"If she takes two tablets of Contraplan II within 24 hours of rape there is a 90 percent possibility that abortion would take place," says Dr. Ahmed Fotouh, doctor of obstetrics and gynecology at Al-Azhar University.
Pharmacists sell this medicine only with a doctor’s prescription. "I neither care if the lady is married or not, nor if her husband knows about her taking this medicine or not. Her doctor’s prescription is enough," says Dr. Samy Zaki, a Cairo pharmacist.
But not all pharmacists, or doctors, are as liberal at Zaki. For most women who suffer the double trauma of rape and rape-related pregnancy, a solutions remains elusive.
