Tadwein for Gender Studies organized a conference to discuss its research study entitled “Sexual Violence in Egypt, Means of Support, Protection and Reporting Mechanisms”. Representatives of women’s and human rights organizations and NGOs, as well as women’s and youth initiatives, participated in this conference. In addition, Parliamentarian Martha Mahrous, representing the Coordination of Youth Parties and Politicians, and Counselor Mohamed Samir, media spokesman for the Administrative Prosecution, attended as well.

The conference discussed the study that it conducted in cooperation with Love Matters Project and its most important results and recommendations. It also discussed mechanisms to eliminate violence through the development of a unified law of violence. The attendees stressed the importance of having a unified violence law in Egypt that addresses all forms of violence such as sexual harassment and marital rape and re-read Definitions of concepts existing in laws since their establishment in 1937, in proportion to the development of society, and taking into account terms such as the concept of honor, marital rape, and reconsidering the definition of rape.

The attendees also discussed the importance of having a special court dealing with violence against women cases, which means selecting judges and prosecutors who have experience and specialists in this case, providing training for the mechanisms of law enforcement. They must be selected carefully so that they don’t come from a background of reactionary cultures that stand against the application of penalties. The attendees also stressed on the importance of preserving the victim information, witnesses and those associated with the case, so that no party would be harmed, by protecting the confidentiality of data, by developing new frameworks to deal with this aspect.