The Rise and Fall of #MeToo in Egypt: Part 2
Kerning Cultures
Kerning Cultures Network
4.9 • 529 Ratings
🗓️ 1 April 2022
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A warning: This episode contains descriptions of sexual violence and assault.
As Egyptian women celebrated the arrest of serial predator and rapist Ahmed Bassam Zaki in the summer of 2020, another case came to light: An alleged gang rape in the upscale Fairmont Hotel. If the men involved were convicted, this case would be another big success for the #MeToo movement in Egypt. But instead, it took nasty turns; evidence would be buried, case witnesses would be arrested and campaigners for the victim would face threats and intimidation. Many began to ask: was this the end of the #MeToo movement in Egypt?
This week, the second in a two-part series: the rise and fall of #MeToo in Egypt.
This episode was written and produced by Nadeen Shaker and Zeina Dowidar, with editing by Dana Ballout and Alex Atack. Fact checking by Deena Sabry and sound design and mixing by Mohamad Khreizat and Paul Alouf.
Special thanks to everyone who made this story happen: Sabah Khodir, Noor Gohary, Nadine AbdelHamid, Farah Desouky, Zeina Amr, and Nadine Enan.
Support this podcast on patreon.com/kerningcultures for as little as $1 a month.
Find a transcript for this episode at our website, kerningcultures.com/kerningcultures.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story inaccurately stated that Sabah Khodir had seen the Fairmont video. In fact, she had only seen screenshots of it. The audio has been updated to reflect this correction.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is part two of our personal deep dive into the summer that ended up |
| 0:05.5 | monumentally changing the culture around sexual harassment in Egypt. |
| 0:09.6 | If you haven't listened to part one of this story, I would go do that now. |
| 0:13.6 | And before we start, a little disclaimer and trigger warning, this episode contains |
| 0:18.3 | graphic descriptions of sexual violence and rape throughout. If you don't want to hear that stuff, I would skip this episode contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence and rape throughout. |
| 0:22.1 | If you don't want to hear that stuff, I would skip this episode. |
| 0:26.8 | At the end of the summer of 2020, Egyptian women were celebrating a moment of euphoria, victory, and relief. |
| 0:34.4 | Ahmed Bessam Zaki, also known as A.B. Z. A serial rapist and harasser had been arrested. He would |
| 0:41.9 | eventually be handed an 11-year prison sentence. We told the story in depth in part one. |
| 0:48.1 | Throughout his case, Instagram pages were sharing hundreds of testimonies of harassment and rape |
| 0:53.3 | from women across the country. |
| 0:55.8 | Sometime in late July, the Instagram page, Assault Police, which was the page that triggered the Me Too movement in Egypt, |
| 1:02.3 | exposed another incident that would change everything for a second time in the country. |
| 1:07.7 | The case was called the Fairmont case. |
| 1:10.9 | The Fairmont case was one of the most notorious cases at the time, |
| 1:16.4 | and it becomes so popular and it had become so wildly known, |
| 1:20.8 | that in my eyes, if Egypt drops the ball on this, |
| 1:25.0 | we completely 100% lose face in front of the entire world. |
| 1:30.7 | This is Sabahod, an Egyptian activist. |
| 1:33.5 | The event we're discussing is said to have happened eight years ago in 2014, at the Fairmont, |
| 1:40.0 | an upscale hotel overlooking the Nile in the heart of downtown Cairo. |
| 1:44.1 | A young girl, 17, she had just turned 18 years old. |
... |
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