HARASSmap is a mobile and online technology non-profit that uses interactive mapping to try to reduce the social acceptability of sexual harassment throughout Egypt.
History
As of 2005, HARASSmap co-founder Rebecca Chiao began investigating the prevalence of sexual harassment in the daily life of Egyptian women and eventually, with the help of friends and volunteers, launched a campaign that would eventually be adopted by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights. While these efforts were aimed towards changing sexual harassment legislation within the Egyptian government to better criminalize offences, there was a push for more urgent action. In a 2008 study conducted by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, researchers found that out of the 1,010 women they surveyed, 83% of Egyptian women and 98% of foreign women in Egypt said they had experienced sexual harassment. Deciding it was time for some on-the-ground action, Chiao and HARASSmap co-founder
Engy Ghozlan decided to harness the power of a mobile friendly population and linked
FrontlineSMS and
Ushahidi to create the technological basis for HARASSmap.
Founders
HARASSmap was co-founded in 2010 by Rebecca Chiao (Project Leader), Engy Ghozlan, Amel Fahmy (Principal investigator of Research Unit) and Sawsan Gad.
Mission
As a volunteer-based initiative, HARASSmap aims to end the social acceptability of sexual harassment and assault in Egypt. In addition to its interactive mapping service and community outreach service, HARASSmap offers self-defence classes and community education for both men and women.
How it works
When someone experiences or is a witness to an incidence of sexual harassment, they can fill out an online report or send the report via SMS, e-mail, Twitter or Facebook including the details of the incident as well as address, street name and public points of interest. HARASSmap then verifies the reports and places them on a Google map of Egypt, which localises sexual harassment hotspots. The map will show red dots where incidences of sexual harassment have taken place.
HARASSmap volunteers visit the areas where incidences have occurred to raise awareness about what constitutes sexual harassment and to work towards ending it. By meeting with local shop owners, police officers, doormen and other public venues, the HARASSmap team is working to mobilize them to make their neighbourhoods "harassment-free zones".
Awards and grants
HARASSmap won the 2011 World Summit Youth Award and the 2012 Deutsche Welle Best of the Blogs Award for 'Best Use of Technology for Social Good' and is now an incubated social enterprise at Nahdey El Mahrousa. Since HARASSmap's inception, they have been approached by activists from 25 countries for help adopting similar initiatives. In 2012, the
International Development Research Centre
The International Development Research Centre (IDRC; , ''CRDI'') is a Canadian federal Crown corporation. As part of Canada's foreign affairs and development efforts, IDRC champions and funds research and innovation within and alongside developi ...
(IDRC) of Canada offered HARASSmap a grant to continue study sexual harassment in Egypt based on reports submitted by participants and gather information on the methodological issues in the collection and use of crowd sourced data.
See also
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Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights
The Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR) is a civil, independent, NGO, non-governmental, non-partisan, not-for-profit organization in Egypt. It supports Egyptian woman in obtaining full rights and Gender equality, equality with men. In additi ...
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Feminism in Egypt
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Gender inequality in Egypt
Traditional gender roles in Egypt are prevalent and clearly defined. These roles are largely associated with traditional Islamic family structures, wherein women's roles are closely tied to the domestic sphere and men's roles tied to the public sp ...
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Judiciary of Egypt
The judicial system (or judicial branch) of Egypt is an independent branch of the Egyptian government which includes both secular and religious courts.
The Egyptian judicial system is based on European and primarily French legal concepts and ...
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Operation Anti Sexual Harassment
Operation Anti Sexual Harassment, (Arabic: قوة ضد التحرش, transliterated: Quwwa did al-taharrush, also known as OpAntiSH) is an activist group in Cairo, Egypt, whose goal is to prevent sexual harassment and assault, and in particular the ...
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Rape in Egypt
Rape in Egypt is a criminal offense with penalties ranging from lifetime sentence to capital punishment. In Egypt, marital rape is legal. By 2008, the U.N. quoted Egypt's Interior Ministry's figure that 20,000 rapes take place every year, alth ...
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Women in Egypt
The role of women in Egypt has changed significantly from Women in ancient Egypt, ancient times to the modern era.
Early archaeological records show that Egyptian women were considered equal to men, regardless of marital status. They could own ...
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678 (film)
''678'' (released internationally as ''Cairo 6,7,8'') is a 2010 Egyptian political thriller film written and directed by Mohamed Diab. The film focuses on the daily public sexual harassment of three women of different social backgrounds in Egypt ...
References
{{reflist
External links
HARASSmapEgyptian Center for Women's Rights
Mobile technology
Women's rights in Egypt