678

Today was one of those beautifully simple Cairo days I will miss so much.
Sophie, Margaux and I went into town this evening for dinner at one of our favorite spots, then headed downtown to see a new Egyptian movie called 678. 

Seeing movies in Egypt is an experience, let's just say. We had a lot of fun with it. After running around lost for a while and telling people we speak "a little" arabic, we finally made it into the theater. We are 'those three foreign girls' after all; giggly and lost and confused but happy to be there, hahaha.
Egyptian theaters are a little less glamorous than the dollar theater in my town. They're nice enough. What really gets me is the movie etiquette that was never introduced to Cairo. You'll find babies running down the isles, and of cooourse people answer their phones.. after letting it ring for a few moments longer than necessary. And my new favorite: there was a man smoking inside the theater....
It's all part of the experience =)

The movie was increddddible.678 is centered around three women and their plight dealing with sexual harassment on a daily basis on the streets of Cairo. It is based on true accounts and the first sexual harassment court case in Cairo.
The movie follows the stories of Abdel, Seba and Nelly, three Egyptian women. 
Abdel is a vailed women who is forced by financial constraints to take a public bus to work every day. On the bus she is harassed every day by men who do everything from verbally harass her to grabbing her in public and even exposing themselves and pressing their bodies against her. Eventually she gets fed up and decides to take matters into her own hands and defend herself. 
She goes to a support group run by Seba who was assaulted during a futball match. She wants to teach women how to speak out against harassment and she tells Abdel that she needs to defend herself, not knowing that Abdel will resort to stabbing her attackers. But the two stick together as a detective starts looking into the cases and exposes the "victims" for their perversion.
Nelly is the third protagonist who is pressing charges on a man who groped her while she was walking and dragged her along the the street with his car. The movie shows as she struggles to get the police to hear her case and how her family encourages her to just let it go.
It was a really brilliant movie and showed so many aspects of Egyptian life, even the morning rutein of the women. Many of us may take this for granted, but if you're walking alone in the city a lot of thought has to go in to what you wear and what kind of transportation you should take. Another really interesting point was that the movie showed how the men don't differentiate between girls in western dress or in hijab, everyone gets harassed if they're alone. 

The director Mohammed Diab said "I made this film to break the silence of women. The short term solution for sexual harassment is that women should not feel ashamed when they get harassed and they should speak out.” 
But only 5% do speak out although at least 80% of women in Egypt say they experience harassment on a regular basis. So! This needs to change, and this movie was astoundingly inspiring!

“Everyday I ride the bus and everyday I get harassed.  How, after all that, do you want me to be rational?”

Get it guuurl, stand up for yourself!! =)

Absolutely loooved it.

Also, on a personal level... it was SO cool understanding 10% of the arabic, and watching them walk around areas I'm familiar with =) And I feel very empowered! Well done 678!!