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Egyptian students launch anti-harassment campaigns

The administration and activist students at Cairo University are making progress against harassment and have started campaigns to encourage victims to speak up and to identify offenders.
Egyptian protesters hold up placards and shout slogans during a demonstration in Cairo against sexual harassment on February 12, 2013. Egyptian protesters took to the street again to demand an end to sexual violence, as campaigns against the repeated attacks in central Cairo pick up steam. Sexual harassment has long been a problem in Egypt, but recently the violent nature and frequency of the attacks have raised the alarm.   AFP PHOTO / KHALED DESOUKI        (Photo credit should read KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Gett
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CAIRO — A number of students at the faculty of computers and information at Cairo University launched the Speak Up campaign Dec. 24 to fight harassment on campus. Soha Abu Zeid, one of the spokeswomen for the effort, told Al-Monitor, “The campaign started as a project for the media campaigns course, which was being taught during the first semester of the current academic year. However, students decided to carry on with the activities for the second, current semester, although the course had ended.”

She further explained, “At the beginning, a work group chose harassment as a subject for the campaign. We conducted a poll among university students on the issue, as we had noticed an increase in the rate of harassment on campus, and the results of the poll confirmed our observations.”

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