Egyptian-American feminist and journalist Mona Eltahawy first talked about her experience of sexual assault during Hajj in 2013.
She is behind #MosqueMeToo.
Muslim men and women from around the world started using the hashtag yesterday and in less than 24 hours it was tweeted 2,000 times.
A Muslim woman emailed me after she read my thread about being sexually assaulted at Haj to share her mother’s experience with sexual assault at Haj. She sent me a poem that broke all the pieces I though I had stitched together. I was crying as I replied to her.
— Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) February 9, 2018
It has gone on to become one of the top ten trends of Farsi Twitter.
Many of the women sharing their experiences on Twitter report being groped, inappropriately touched or having someone rub against them in the crowd.
For Muslims, the Hajj is the fifth and final pillar of Islam. It is something that every sane adult Muslim must undertake at least once in their lives if they can afford it and are physically able.
It is estimated two million Muslims undertake Hajj each year, creating huge crowds in the holy city of Mecca.
And what’s one thing that happens in huge crowds? Men stick out their hands and grab.
Many Iranian and Farsi speaking Twitter users not only shared their experience of harassment but also challenged the belief that wearing the hijab keeps women safe from assault and harassment.
In Iran the hijab is mandatory. There are posters in cities and towns comparing unveiled women to unwrapped candy and lollipops attracting unwanted attention from flies.
But some of the lollipops are fighting back.
Comments
5 responses to “Pilgrimage and groping opportunity combined”
Strange, it seems not even the most chaste clothing in the world stops groping. But I thought the whole point of it was to make women safe from inciting such gropings? Weird. I’m sure the religious authorities have a logical explanation for all this…
It must be the lady hormones or something, Holms, ‘cos it couldn’t possibly be the fault of the men. Could it?
When Richard Burton (no, not that one) made Hajj in 1853, the pilgrim caravans had to fight their way to Mecca past bandit gangs.
So the pilgrimage is a *Frott-Hajj* then.
Assaults will only stop when it is mandatory for men to wear straitjackets and blindfolds, and be accompanied by two female relatives, whenever they have to be out in public. They can remove them at home, but only when in their crates.