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Sexual Harassment: A cultural Epidemic in Egypt and Its Relationship with Islamic Religion

Sexual Harassment is a phenomenon that is widely disseminated around the globe. Sexual harassment has many forms not only physical but also verbal through unwelcomed comments. This thesis will focus on analysing the topic of sexual harassment from an Islamic perspective using Egypt as a case study to examine the phenomenon. The mentioned perspective will deliberately examine different apprehensions of Quranic verses in Islam related to roles and rights of women in society. In that context, the thesis will discuss how some interpretations, among the interpretations presented in the paper, for certain Quranic verses can pragmatically lead to inequality between males and females in Egyptian society, which, eventually might cause/ lead to sexual harassment; the thesis will also focus on the other interpretations provided by Quranic scholars that presents different meanings to these verses, which endorses women’s rights and consequently rebukes sexual harassment against women in society. This paper will narrow down the study to discuss the root cause that creates the culture of the epidemic of sexual harassment in Egypt in terms of linking other factors to interpretations of the certain Quranic verses as referenced earlier. The reasons as it will be indicated in the paper are education, social norms, weak law implementation, and controversial interpretation of Quranic verses related to women’s rights and obligation in the society or in the household. The main question that this thesis is aiming to answer is how can different interpretations of Quranic verses related to women rights and obligations provoke sexual harassment against women in the Egyptian society? Are these interpretations embedded within the cultural norms and traditions? The paper will also discuss the state’s legal frameworks and its implementation against sexual harassment and how can the state response be improved. Moreover, the role of NGOs will also be discussed and what hinders their action against this phenomenon. The thesis has two main theories that are used throughout the whole paper which are Islamic Hermeneutics and Islamic Feminism, which mainly contributes to providing different doctrine interpretations of controversial Quranic verses related to women rights and the relevance of the verses within a certain context. In addition to that, the paper aims to discuss the relevance of the idea of having an Islamic approach to combat sexual harassment in collaboration with NGOs, International organizations, and some religious institutions.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-526061
Date January 2024
CreatorsElaraby, Moemen
PublisherUppsala universitet, Teologiska institutionen
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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