Who is Nadine Ashraf, who encouraged female survivors of harassment in Egypt to speak up
Nadine Ashraf puts simple furniture, a chair and a table in the spacious hall next to her room, all in white. On the table, she arranged her electronic devices: a laptop, a tablet and her mobile phone, along with books on philosophy and the woman she used to own.
This part of the office room seemed suitable for Nadine Ashraf, as the white color that was painted on all the walls as well may help her clarity of mind and focus in reading the hundreds of messages she receives daily from victims of sexual harassment in Egypt.
"People used to imagine that the person standing behind the account that moved the stagnant water again was a large institution and professional people, but it was me, and from this personal room," Nadine tells the BBC.
The 22-year-old university student runs an Instagram account to post testimonies of victims of sexual assault, known as “Asalt Police” or “Assault Police,” and this account brought the harassment case back to the fore in Egypt.
The stories Nadine published through this account sparked a great controversy during the past months and prompted the Egyptian authorities to take legal and legislative action. Among those stories were the case of "Ahmed Bassam Zaki" and the case of "The Vermont Girl".
Nadine Ashraf's friend exposed to harassment, which led to the idea
Nadine Ashraf explains to the BBC that all the time she heard from her school and university friends that a person named Ahmed Bassam Zaki was harassing them, and he had always complained about him to officials in the educational institutions that they wore, but the harassment did not stop.
The university girl says that last July she decided to create an account on Instagram without revealing the identity of who runs it, with the aim of collecting all these testimonies about the facts related to Ahmed Bassam Zaki on one platform, and of course she wanted to reach the largest number possible.
Nadine adds that she believes that the new media is a tool for changing society, and she spends most of her time browsing it, but she did not expect this story to raise all this controversy on social media.
Nadine expresses her feelings at the time: "It seemed like a dream come true. After all these crimes committed by this person and the fear of him and silence for years, society finally moved to reject the harassers."
In the wake of this widespread controversy, the Egyptian Public Prosecution announced an investigation into the facts attributed to the accused, and then a wave of electronic disclosure of sexual harassment in Egypt began, similar to the "Me Too" campaign that was launched abroad.
The strength of the idea of creating an account on the Internet to talk about sexual harassment is that the testimonies are not published in the names of the owners, as social customs in Egypt deafen those who talk about a crime of sexual harassment to which you were exposed.
Nadine formed a team consisting of her friends to help her manage her Instagram account, and she also resorted to some lawyers and human rights defenders secretly at first to obtain legal support, and to make sure that what she posts does not violate the law.
With the account gaining more followers, exceeding 200,000, her team also decided to publish information to raise awareness about how to combat harassment.
Nadine says that "after the arrival of all these painful stories about harassment, every girl who reads felt that she was not the only one being exposed to it, and that the problem lies in the community and not in them."
BBC
