Najwa Ramadan, Executive Director of the Edraak Foundation for Development and Equality, stated that women are subjected to all forms of violence and added, “Women’s support centers should be opened in Egypt to provide psychological support to victims of gender-based violence.”

ASMAA FATHÎ

Cairo- Women are subjected to physical, sexual, economic, and psychological violence. Probably, the most effective one is psychological violence because it causes trauma for victims. We spoke to Najwa Ramadan, Executive Director of the Edraak Foundation for Development and Equality, and the victims of violence in Egypt about the increasing gender-based violence and its effects on women.

“I was subjected to sexual abuse when I was a child”

Salwa Jamal was subjected to sexual abuse by one of her relatives when she was a child. She decided to go to a psychiatrist because she no longer dealt with the problems she faced. “I felt like I was cursed and thought that I negatively affected the lives of everyone around me. After going to a psychiatrist, I understood that I felt guilty and bad because I had been subjected to sexual abuse by one of my family members when I was a child,” she told us.

“The number of women’s centers providing psychological support should be increased” 

Najwa Ramadan, Executive Director of the Edraak Foundation for Development and Equality, spoke about how psychological violence affects women's lives and mental health and said that victims of psychological violence need psychological support. “These women need legal and psychological support. There should be women’s centers near the NGOs providing legal support for victims to provide psychological support to victims. Although there are psychological support departments and units of the Ministry of Health and the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood and psychological support units for women in hospitals, they should be more aware of the services they provide,” she told NuJINHA.

“NGOs have important responsibilities”

Najwa Ramadan stressed that NGOs have important responsibilities in raising awareness of the importance of psychological support for victims of violence. “They should launch awareness-raising campaigns to highlight how women need women’s support centers. They should set up a system in data management to document the cases by respecting victims’ privacy and protect their information,” she said.

“262 women and girls were subjected to violence in Egypt in the first quarter of 2022”

Najwa Ramadan shared their data on how many women and girls were subjected to violence in the country in the first quarter of 2022. In the first quarter of 2022, 262 women and girls were subjected to violence and 72 women were killed in Egypt, according to the report titled “Gender-Based Violence Crimes against Women and Girls Observatory” of the foundation.

The foundation also monitored that 31 women were subjected to physical violence, and 24 of them were subjected to physical violence by one of their family members. “55 women were subjected to blackmail, while the number of cases monitored in 2021 did not exceed 16. 34 suicides and 13 suicide attempts were reported in 2022. About 27 sexual harassment cases were reported. Seven rape cases, including five cases of girls aged between 12 and 17 and a girl with special needs, were reported,” the report says.

“The worst one is economic violence”

Asmaa Hamid, the founder of the Barra Al Sour initiative, told us that women are affected by all forms of violence, “But the worst one is economic violence because of its great impact on women's lives. Women have to tolerate violence against them because their husbands have economic power. Some of them bear the violence for the future of the children. Women's rights defenders are subjected to social violence. They are accused of spreading moral disorder in society.”

“Women and girls are forced to wear veils”

Asmaa Abdel Hamid said that the crisis of getting rid of the veil is one of the strongest causes of violence against women. “There are girls who live for many years under the threat of beatings, imprisonment, and deprivation of education for refusing to wear a veil,” she said.

Speaking about one of her experiences, she said, “A person tried to hit me with his car in the Abdeen Square in Cairo and since that moment until now, I can't go near this square and I cannot get rid of my fear after that shock.”