Lara Logan's assault not unique - Angella Johnson tells her story

Angella Johnson, a writer for the UK Daily Mail tells readers today about how she too faced sexual assault in Tahrir Square.  Fortunately for Ms. Johnson her incident was far less tragic.

Angela Johnson: I was especially horrified to read of CBS journalist Lara Logan’s sex ordeal as she reported on Egyptians celebrating the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak – because I too was a victim. 

I was a few hundred yards away in Cairo’s Tahrir Square last Friday, unaware that Lara – whom I had worked with at GMTV – was then desperately fighting off a mob of 200 rabid men in a sustained sex assault.

Now I can say what I have only told a few friends since my return: That I too was subjected to several sexual harassment attacks at the scene. Although they cannot be compared to the trauma Lara suffered, they were deeply upsetting. 

The first happened soon after my arrival in the square with photographer Philip Ide. 

At first it had seemed just the merest accidental brush of a hand on my bottom but within seconds I felt another, less hesitant stroke. 

I ignored it and kept moving, firmly gripping Phil’s shirt so we would not be separated in the surge of bodies. The hand behind me thrust forward again, this time boldly grasping a fair amount of jeans-clad flesh. [MORE]

In Ms. Johnson's column, she tells how incidents like the on in Tahrir Square are not isolated incidents, but common place in the Middle East.

From my previous experiences in the Arab world, I have accepted that a minor level of sexual harassment comes with the territory, so I brushed it off. 

It never occurred to me to complain to my bosses. I have never wanted to give male colleagues any reason to treat me differently.

But what happened to Lara has given women like me a chance to tell our story, like the time in South Africa when I fled a Zulu after he pushed his hand down my blouse. 

Or the occasion in Qatar when I fought off a sheikh in full traditional dress trying to force his way into my hotel room.I have had my breasts grabbed in Turkey, been chased by a gang of men while walking down the street in Morocco and generally treated like a piece of meat on a previous visit to Egypt. 

That was why I arrived in Tahrir Square armoured in jeans, a baggy, long sleeve top and with my hair covered with a knitted hat. 

No doubt, as a woman friend has said to me: 'In their minds, you and Lara were just two "infidel whores", the kind of sexually-liberated women they see in films and videos, or the ones who visit on holiday, get drunk and have liaisons with local men.'

Once again I must question the logic of sending women to cover these protest in the Middle East.  If as Ms. Johnson describes, sexual harassments and assaults are an everyday thing, why not expect even worse when one of their  societies breaks down during a revolution?


Ms. Johnson's tale is also a reminder that while we may hope that Egypt embraces a true democracy for all of its citizens, Egypt (and most of the Middle East) may not always be on the same page as to what constitutes true democracy. 


Via: Memeorandum
Via: UK Daily Mail