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Frustration in Egypt as Cairo hotel gang rape case is shelved

Frustration in Egypt as Cairo hotel gang rape case is shelved

MENNA A. FAROUK EGYPTIANS said yesterday that attitudes towards women need to change to end sexual violence in the north African country, after a high-profile gang rape case was shelved. Public prosecutors on Tuesday freed four suspects in a case involving a woman who said she was drugged and raped in 2014 at the Fairmont Hotel in the capital, Cairo, as evidence amassed during nearly nine months of investigation was insufficient. "The problem is not only with the law, but it is mainly with social attitudes towards women," said Entessar El-Saeed, director of the Cairo Foundation for Development and Law,…
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Gritty Lebanese film challenges marital rape impunity in Arab world

Gritty Lebanese film challenges marital rape impunity in Arab world

BAN BARKAWI IN a short film set in Lebanon, where marital rape is not a crime, filmmaker Farah Shaer tackles one of Arab society's biggest taboos and highlights the difficulties women face when reporting domestic and sexual violence. "Shakwa" (meaning Complaint), which debuted at Egypt's Gouna Film Festival on October 25, tells the story of Hoda, a young woman who tries to file a rape accusation against her abusive husband - only to be told he has not broken the law. Shaer, whose last film "Soukoon" (2019) addressed abortion within marriage, said her fictional protagonist's struggles were based on the…
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