Cyberactivism and Empowerment: Egyptian Women’s Advocacy to Combat Sexual Harassment

Abstract

The active political participation and remarkable presence of women during Egypt’s January25^th revolution in 2011 raised expectations that Egypt would witness improvement in women’s civic engagement and empowerment. Sexual harassment is a problem that is often ignored as many Egyptian women refuse to report sexual harassment due to a culture of silence and shame coupled with this taboo issue. This paper highlights the case of Egyptian women’s digital activism efforts and initiatives to combat sexual harassment empowered by digital tools and social media. Drawing from Egyptian women’s cyberactivism battle against sexual harassment, the paper argues that social media and online technology have empowered Egyptian women and provided them with virtual spaces to communicate and bring attention to such serious societal epidemic .  The paper’s goal is to demonstrate how Egyptian women utilized social media and virtual online spaces as nontraditional advocacy tools to demand human dignity, and social justice rights.