Police initiatives to tackle sexual violence in the Middle East: overdue change or window dressing?

In an article this week in Al Monitor Saferworld's Egypt and Libya Coordinator Joshua Rogers looks at police initiatives in Egypt to tackle sexual violence and asks whether they are really doing enough?

The Egyptian government recently established a ten-person specialised police unit to deal with violence against women. First announced in May of this year, the unit is now operational and is being held up as a model for other countries in the Middle East to emulate. However, what seems like a welcome response to a pressing problem, risks distracting from the far-reaching changes in policing that have been core demands of the uprisings across the region since 2011.

After two years of escalating violence against women, including systematic harassment and gang rapes at Tahrir Square, the Egyptian government responded to requests by the country’s National Council for Women to create a specialised unit with a strong emphasis on psychological support for survivors with female police officers acting as points of contact for victims. The National Women’s Committee in Yemen is making similar demands on its government, while Jordan has placed a strong emphasis on recruiting female officers, with more than 3000 female recruits in 2012.

Read the full article here.

“Increasing the number of women police officers is not enough”

Joshua Rogers