This is a follow-up post for the return of #Metoo in Egypt published in July
I won’t speak about Fairmont case because it needs a separate post and God knows I am working on it.
Now to the latest news when it comes to the #Metoo movement.
Last Tuesday Egypt’s Prosecutor General referred Ahmed Bassam Zaki aka ABZ, the alleged serial rapist to criminal court for a number of charges including on charges of sexual assault of minors, blackmail and sexual harassment.
According to the Public prosecution’s statement, ABZ is accused of sexually assaulting three girls under the age of 18 years old and blackmailing them, along with another girl, to divulge matters that will harm their honour, while demanding they continue having sex with him.
Honour here means their reputation as females in society.
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| Believe Women from a #Metoo protest in 2017 "AFP" |
ABZ is accused of sexually harassing two of the victims and of taking photos of one of the victims while kissing her, without her consent in a private location.
He is also accused of using telecommunication devices and social media networks in committing crimes, and of possessing cannabis with the intention of consuming it.
The cannabis was found during his arrest.
All this started with an Instagram account called “Assault Police” reporting anonymously about ABZ and his history.
We are still waiting for the trial and see what will happen then.
Doctor BS to face investigation
Now moving to the infamous Dentist BS accused by several men online of sexual harassment above them the man who broke the silence, actor Abbas Aboelhassan in a rare move in a highly
If you remember Egyptian actor and screenplay writer AboelHassan said he would file an official complaint against Doctor BS at the Public Prosecution in July.
There had no updates after his announcement in July but then in late August, another renowned figure came forward accusing Doctor BS of sexual harassment.
This is a prominent figure was surprisingly famous Egyptian influencer and social media figureTameem Younes.
Younes published a video on 26 August 2020 on his official Instagram recounted how Doctor BS touched his private parts while he was operating on his teeth at his clinic.
Younes said that he was only 22 years ago and went to the famous dentist per the recommendations of his ex-fiancée family.
Ironically Tameem Younes is himself accused of sexually harassing women from his colleagues in the advertising field and he himself threatened to take legal action against his accusers.
The fact that he came forward with accusations against BS made his accusers like Aida El-come forward again and raise a question about the double standards in their case.
Earlier his year, Tameem Younes released a song which many including myself considered a call for violence against women.
Due to the criticism, Younes removed the song from YouTube but it was too late because it became one of the 2020 hits and people used to play in weddings and engagement parties.
Anyhow back to Doctor BS who was back to the spotlight on social media following the popular Social media’s accusation.
On 1 September 2020, Abbas Aboelhassan announced his lawyer Hassan Abu El-Einein presented a complaint against Dr Bassem Samir to the Public Prosecution on behalf of him, Tameem Younes and others.
تم اليوم التقدم ببلاغ رسمي الي النيابة العامة وسيادة معالي المستشار النائب العام عن طريق المحامي حسن أبو العنين وكيلا عن عباس ابو الحسن و تميم يونس وآخرين ضد المتحرش الجنسي المتسلسل باسم سمير ناشد فهمي وشهرته "باسم سمير" طبيب أسنان وذلك عن وقائع التحرش الجنسي #باسم_سمير_متحرش pic.twitter.com/yz4Zwq9eAF
— Abbas Aboelhassan (@Abbasyz) September 1, 2020
Hours later, the Egyptian Public Prosecution announced that the General Prosecutor ordered an investigation into the allegations against a “doctor accused of harassing men”
The statement added that three men filed a complaint against him.
Interestingly, the full name of Doctor BS was not mentioned in the statement unlike the “TikTok girls”
On 2 September 2020, lawyer Hassan Abou El-Einein filed a new complaint against BS on behalf of a new client.
تقدم اليوم ا/حسن أبو العينين المحامى ببلاغ جديد للمستشار المحامى العام الأول لنيابات شمال الجيزة من ضحية جديدة من ضحايا المتحرش الدكتور/ باسم سمير ومرفق به فيديوهات لوقائع تحرش وهتك عرض داخل عيادته بالدقى وجارى إرفاقها بالبلاغ الاصلى الذى تحققه النيابة العامة#باسم_سمير_متحرش
— Abbas Aboelhassan (@Abbasyz) September 2, 2020
Abbas added this new victim presented to the prosecution videos showing allegedly sexual harassment and assault incidents filmed inside the renowned dentist at his clinic in Dokki allegedly.
I believe this is the first time in modern we find a group of men including renowned faces report another man, who is also renowned in the society for sexual harassment.
It is also the first time in the history of the Egyptian prosecution to declare that it is investigating into an allegation involving a man sexually harassing other men.
The Prosecution’s statement did not mention the name of the famous dentist unlike the TikTok girls
Personally, I believe Doctor BS left Egypt.
Doctor BS’ big billboards and online ads have disappeared as well.
The head of Egypt’s Dentists syndicate Dr Ehab Heikal revealed in a TV show on 3 September that the syndicate received officially a complaint against BS concerning his conduct and it was going officially to investigate him.
Allegations against investigative journalist H.A and Hisham Allam denies vows legal action
Confession: I took that headline from the brilliant headline made by Mada Misr in Arabic when it first reported it “ Rape and harassments allegations follow H.A and journalist Hisham Allam vows legal action”. It was one of the best headlines this year actually.
Last month, Egypt’s media or rather journalism realm was watching how an anonymous Egyptian Blog “yes, blogs are back” accused a renowned Egyptian investigative reporter of being allegedly sexual predator whose harassments and assaults turned to go beyond borders.
El-Modawana or “Daftr Hakayat” published anonymous testimonies of Egyptian journalists accusing journalist H.A of sexual assault and harassment.
It did not take too much time to guess who he was especially that he took the online stand to defend himself in the worse way ever.
Journalist Hisham Allam defended himself denying those accusations especially hashtags against became viral.
Allam, who is an investigative journalist hit national and regional fame with the Panama Papers investigation which he participated in.
To defend himself, Allam published a video showing how he with two journalists “A Syrian and an Egyptian” whom he trained “He made it clear that they were his trainees” sent fabricated testimonies of his alleged misconduct to the website.
He wanted to show that anyone can fabricate anything.
Well, it backfired on him because that did not prove his innocence for real, especially at the same time, renowned Syrian journalist Zaina Erhaim shared a testimony of a Syrian journalist in December 2015 for an alleged incident involving him during the annual Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism “ARIJ” Summit in Amman.
Erhaim added that she checked from the testimony of the anonymous Syrian journalist and that she was telling the truth.
The two journalists participating in Allam’s video backed off after facing a huge backlash for standing against the victims, taking his word against the victims’ words for granted.
Hisham Allam vowed to take legal action against the anonymous blog and all those spreading allegations against him.
There has been no legal action taken against him by the accusers as far as I can tell.
All the international and regional media organizations affiliated with Allam like Lebanon’s Daraj, Arij, DW academia and ICIJ cut their connections with him professionally.
Following the huge coverage and debate online, the Egyptian journalists' syndicate issued its statement urging its members to report any incidents of sexual misconduct to the authorities.
Some Egyptian women journalists did not like the statement and believe it was too weak compared to a face problem like sexual harassment in media.
Personally, I know incidents where women journalists had to change to their career altogether due to sexual harassments.
Others have either were forced silenced or paid a huge price for speaking up.
“Egyptian women Journalists” Facebook slammed the statement and issued a statement demanding safe environment for work and a mechanism to report sexual misconduct in the syndicate aside from the authorities.
back to the blog to all where it started this movement in media, “El-Modawan” published so far 7 testimonies against HA. Syrian journalist Zaina Erhaim also published more testimonies.
It also published four testimonies accusing a high school teacher, a therapist, a famous blogger and journalist working in the showbiz section of sexual misconduct.
Speaking about the therapist , in those weeks the online campaign managed to make women and girls expose a psychiatrist in Tanta who sexually harassed allegedly his women patients in his clinic.
This case was overshadowed by other incidents in Cairo but this online campaign managed to make some girls report him to the authorities and he was arrested.
He is currently detained pending investigation.
A famous Squash coach was also arrested and detained pending investigations into charges of sexual harassing squash players in a famous Cairo Club.
We do not know any names yet. It is the first case involving sports.
This quick round-up may explain why I failed to publish any follow-up. All those updates were happening at the same time.
And yes, this wave started with posts in English on Instagram.
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