How has the rate of sexual harassment in Egypt evolved since 2013?
Executive summary
Egypt’s most-cited baseline is a 2013 UN Women study that found 99.3% of surveyed women aged roughly 10–35 reported some form of sexual harassment, and large shares reported physical touching and feeling unsafe [1] [2] [3]. Later surveys and analyses show continued high prevalence but use different timeframes and measures — for example Arab Barometer data reporting 63% of women experienced some harassment in the previous 12 months and 42% reported verbal harassment across genders [4].
1. A 2013 shock: “virtually all” Egyptian women reported harassment
The widely cited UN Women 2013 study is the anchor for most reporting: it found 99.3% of female respondents said they had experienced sexual harassment at some point in their lives, and very high proportions described physical touching as the most common form [1] [2] [3]. International outlets and compendia (Smithsonian, Foreign Policy summaries, Wikipedia entries) relied on that figure to characterise a post‑2011 environment in which harassment was pervasive and, by some accounts, worsened after the 2011 revolution [3] [5] [6].
2. Earlier and alternative measurements show high but lower baseline rates
Surveys done before 2013 produced lower—yet still high—numbers. The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights reported 83% in 2008, and other domestic studies find sizable but varying rates depending on definitions and samples [7] [8]. Analysts and local outlets note differences in what counts as “harassment” — from catcalls and staring to physical assault — which explains part of the numeric spread [9] [7].
3. Different surveys, different windows: lifetime versus 12‑month prevalence
Comparisons across years are complicated because studies use different windows. The UN Women figure is a lifetime prevalence for a defined age cohort; Arab Barometer’s later work reports 63% of women experienced harassment within the prior 12 months (and 90%–88% among younger cohorts), while across genders the survey found 42% verbal and 29% physical harassment in the prior year [4]. Those figures indicate persistent high incidence but are not directly comparable to the 2013 lifetime statistic [2] [4].
4. Legal change and activism, but unclear effect on rates
Scholars and NGOs document policy shifts after 2013: sexual harassment was defined and criminalized in Egyptian law in 2014 and penalties increased; activists and grassroots campaigns also intensified [10] [11]. Sources record growing public debate and new reporting mechanisms, yet they also say many survivors still avoid reporting due to stigma and fear — which limits the visibility of trends in official statistics [10] [9].
5. Reporting, measurement and political context distort trend interpretation
Analysts warn that political upheaval since 2011 affected both the lived reality and the documentation of harassment: some sources say harassment rose after the revolution, others point to intensifying state control and impunity that complicate reporting [5] [10]. Media, activist and academic accounts emphasize that methodological differences, underreporting, and changing public willingness to discuss abuse mean there is no single, uncontested numeric trajectory in the sources [7] [9].
6. What the different numbers actually tell us
Taken together, the body of reporting shows: sexual harassment in Egypt has been widespread for decades (pre‑2011 surveys already showed high rates), peaked in public attention around and after the 2011 uprisings, and remains common according to later surveys [7] [5] [4]. The 2013 UN Women lifetime figure (99.3%) is an extreme but repeatedly cited marker; subsequent 12‑month measures such as Arab Barometer’s (63% for women) confirm persistent high prevalence even if they cannot be used to prove a directional rise or fall compared to the 2013 lifetime number [2] [4].
7. Limits of available sources and what we cannot conclude
Available sources do not mention a consistent, longitudinal dataset showing year‑by‑year escalation or decline in sexual harassment rates since 2013; therefore no definitive trendline can be asserted from these documents alone. Sources also do not reconcile methodological differences across surveys, nor provide exhaustive national administrative statistics that would allow clear before‑and‑after comparisons [1] [4] [9].
8. Practical takeaway for readers
The empirical record in the cited reporting establishes that sexual harassment in Egypt is endemic and remains a major social problem: one landmark study reports nearly universal lifetime exposure (99.3%), and subsequent national/regional surveys show large shares of women experiencing harassment annually [1] [4]. However, variations in survey definitions, reporting windows and social context mean claims about a precise increase or decrease since 2013 are not supported by a single consistent dataset in these sources [9] [10].