Protestors have taken to the streets of Cairo to demand the removal of a YouTube video of a woman being sexually assaultedduring Cairo's Tahrir Square rally to support Egypt's newly elected president, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.
The official request to remove the video comes not from Cairo itself, but the Egyptian embassy in Washington, after President Sisi visited the anonymous victim in miliary hospital to personally apologise for her assault. It was during his visit that the victim begged him to get the video taken down. 'My daughter watches it every day and collapses' her mother said.
Female rights groups in Eqypt have been increasing their lobbying for legal protection for women regarding the issue of sexual harassment after a shocking UN study in 2013 revealed that 9 out of 10 women in Egypt have been sexually harassed, a situation which has escalated since the 2011 overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak. Human rights activists have described Egypt's epidemic of sexual assault 'horrifying'.
It was announced on Tuesday via a presidential spokesman that Sisi is spear-heading a new law which will make sexual assault illegal for the first time ever in Egypt. The as yet un-imposed law states that anyone guilty of assault, whether in public or private, will face a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of £4,160.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.