Unreported World

Unreported World examines the increase in sexual assaults and harassment in Egypt.

The programme reveals claims that young men are being paid to carry out horrendous mob attacks on women. It is claimed that this started under the Mubarak regime and it is suspected by some to still continue.

Women have been at the forefront of the Egyptian revolution but are now often fearful of taking part in the regular public demonstrations.

Sexual harassment is not a new problem in Egypt. In a 2010 United Nations survey, more than 80 per cent of women surveyed said they'd been sexually harassed.

But there are signs that the problem has got worse with the breakdown of public order since the revolution. Reports of mob sex attacks are on the increase.

Reporter Ramita Navai and director Dimitri Collingridge meet a young woman who has recently survived such an attack. Nihal was out at a protest in Tahrir Square with four other women. She managed to escape but her friend suffered an ordeal that is typical of these attacks.

She was stripped naked and dozens of men raped her with their hands. Nihal's friend sustained internal injuries and couldn't walk for a week. She has since fled Egypt. Nihal too was severely traumatised.

Nihal has become involved in Harassmap, an anti-sexual harassment movement that charts mob attacks and allows women to log sexual harassment. In the last two years the team has received more than 900 reports from women across the country.

Despite the publicity on the issue, the women themselves are worried about speaking about their personal experiences. It's a taboo subject and many of them are even afraid to tell their parents what they've suffered.

Even when women decide to go to the police, they say they rarely receive help. Twenty-one-year-old student Dina has been the victim of several assaults. She claims that on one occasion she managed to alert a nearby police officer, but that he refused to help, telling her the attack was her fault because she was wearing the wrong clothes.

The team witnesses the everyday harassment women face. As they film, a woman is chased by a group of teenagers. And as Navai and Dina walk down a busy main street, they are constantly verbally abused.

Many of the women Unreported World meets say that age, dress and looks have very little to do with becoming a target. In one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Cairo, Stable Anta, all the women are veiled and they suffer harassment similar to their more westernised counterparts downtown.

To understand the male mentality that might be behind the attacks, the team interviews three young men from a conservative neighbourhood on the outskirts of Cairo. They tell Navai that by dressing in a particular way, women are trying to get attention and their harassment is a form of punishment. They also say that men who cannot afford to get married turn to harassment to fulfil their desires.

But one of Egypt's most influential bloggers, Wael Abbas, says there's another reason behind the attacks. He claims that sexual harassment was used by the previous president Mubarak as a weapon against female protestors; some people Unreported World interview believe that the current authorities are continuing this policy.

In the south of Cairo, the team talks to men who claim that they have been paid since the days of Mubarak's regime to attack women activists, although they say they don't know who is paying them.

The current government says that it is not behind the violence perpetrated by the mobs on women and has set up an inquiry to look into sexual harassment and violence.

The reasons behind sexual harassment and assault in Egypt are complex but it's clear that society's attitude to women is at the heart of it and this has allowed political groups to use it as a tool of intimidation.

The revolution may not yet have changed much for women's rights, but there's a new generation that are fighting back.

Clips from Episode 14

• Egypt: Sex, Mobs…

• All Clips (1)