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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Sexual harassment is not only the most prevalent form of violence against women, but also the most abrasive. Women are harassed in their jobs, schools, universities and even at homes.
METHODology: A convenience sampling method was used to recruit 900 Egyptian females (between 15 and 60 years old), after giving expressed oral consent, using a prepared questionnaire included 10 questions about knowledge, type and response to harassment. Participants were divided into two groups; group A of 500 female patients of non-medical background seeking medical advice in Kasr-Alainy hospital and Group B of 400 medical student females. Epidemiological data of the participants were collected including age, marital status, residency, education and status of work.
RESULTS: the study showed that the verbal type of harassment was the commonest type (70%), school or street were the most common places of exposure (84%), the perpetrator wasn't known to the victim in (97%). 75.1% of physical violence claims were in the form of simple wounds. Police service against harassment was known only to (62 %) and only (11%) of victims tried to contact police.
CONCLUSION: the safety of women requires a multi-disciplinary preventive strategy, awareness about different types of violence against women is a very important initial step, improving women's access to resources, and increasing the role of anti- harassment units in police as well as many universities in Egypt.
KEYWORDS: harassment, female, Egyptian, violence
Language: en |