It's not 'guilt or no guilt'; it's really a practical question. Regardless of who is guilty, will a woman be more protected if she wears a veil in Egypt? And if so, is it OK for women to ignore this fact? The point being, nobody can quickly change the behavior of Egyptian men; this will only happen with time, if at all. If a woman wants to take the risk because she hopes this will advance the cause of women's rights in Egypt, fine. But let her know that she may be facing higher danger levels. If she's OK with that, then so am I.

Any one else think that debating whether or not women should wear the hijab is, in relation to these advertisements, a moot point? Of course one wants to avoid harassment, but the glaring problem I see is that these ads insist to women that THEY are responsible for the sexual aggressions of men.

Any other men find this comparison disturbing?

Maybe if men didn't feel they had a right to rape women, this wouldn't be a problem? I've talked to a few Western women who have gone to Muslim countries, and they all tell me the same thing - men believe they have a right to grope or rape any woman who isn't completely veiled.

Sorry, but I've got to be a party pooper.

You've done the math wrong. The stats you cite actually show that veiled women are LESS likely to be harassed than unveiled women.

To address the question of how veiling affects harassment, you need another piece of information, namely, what percentage of Egyptian women wear the veil. The WaPo article says that about 80% wear hijab.

So if men harassed veiled and unveiled women equally, you'd expect that 80% of those harassed were veiled, right? But in fact 72% of those harassed were veiled - which means that you're LESS likely to be harassed if you wear hijab. In other words, the unveiled 20% gets 28% of all the harassment, disproportionately much.

Got it?

Crunching the numbers, you find that unveiled women are 30% MORE likely to face harassment than veiled women.*

None of this is a justification for anything. If the veil is effective, it's depressing. If not, also depressing. Just trying to lay the facts out with a bit of basic math. I've got to say, it bugs me that the WaPo has such a disregard for data that they can imply in their headline that veiling increases harassment!

As for all the explanations of why it might be that veiling increases sexual harassment - they're explaning a phenomenon that doesn't exist.

*Really crunching the numbers shows it's got to be that fewer than 80% of Egyptian women wear hijab. You can think of it like this: Out of 100 women, 83 face harassment. 72% of those 83 harassed women (= 60 women) wear hijab. So 83-60 = 23 harassed women are unveiled, out of the 100. Which is kind of impossible, since that already means that at least 23 out of 100 women are unveiled (and I've read that the figure is that 20% are unveiled). Note that this probably also means that if you're unveiled, your chance of facing harassment is basically 100%. :(

Can you tell I've taught some math? What a depressing word problem!

I think you're right. The veils and burqas end up being a mark of femininity--and where there's a barrier, where there's a fence, there must be something worth stealing... Is this the dirty male mind? Maybe. But I wonder how women would react if they could go around in whatever clothes they pleased, but men had to be all covered up under tons of cloth. Would that add a spark to the female libido? :-)

why the veiled women might attract more attention. Our male imaginations can run pretty wild and we can easily convince ourselves there are some smoking hot bods just under those layers of cloth. Of course, it helps to have a perverted male mind, but I'm being redundant now.

"Damned if you do, damned if you don't

If you're a woman, whatever it is you're doing, you're doing it wrong. You can cover up your body, but it's still there."

-- saraeanderson

"From what Ms Clark-Flory says, it would seem that the point is the danger of being harassed (by whatever definition) is actually higher if you're veiled. So logic would dictate not to do it, and the ads asking for women to wear veils are simply pragmatically wrong: it won't keep the flies away. So why bother?"

-- Asehpe

"Why all of the concern? Doesn't America get enough of its own abundant idiocy to so pleasantly pass around?"

-- Klytus

Klytus, maybe it's just that we are happy to see that we are not the only culture blighted by fu male female relationships ;) also it's easier to be more objective about someone else's culture, because you have not been seeped in it your whole life.

From what Ms Clark-Flory says, it would seem that the point is the danger of being harrassed (by whatever definition) is actually higher if you're veiled. So logic would dictate not to do it, and the ads asking for women to wear veils are simply pragmatically wrong: it won't keep the flies away. So why bother?

If a woman visits Shubra she should cover, if she goes to Mohandaseen, just wear a knee length skirt, blouse, no hijab, no kerchief, no problem. But yeah, if you go out in your bathing suit someone MIGHT try to ravish you!

Rural villages are religiously conservative ie. Beni-Suef, the village areas around Giza, and just about anywhere mud brick is more abundant than chrome and glass. El-Maadi, Digla, Garden City, Mohandaseen and other affluently modern parts of Cairo have no problems with Western women's attire.

Masri Gidida? Modern dress no problem.

Why all of the concern? Doesn't America get enough of its own abundant idiocy to so pleasantly pass around?

Women: Are you tired of getting Kit-Kat calls or lascivious Snickers when you innocently go for a Wonka to the bank on Payday, even if you're Chunky? Are you tired of men saying "Hershey comes!" and then grabbing you Twix't their Butterfingers? Then stop looking for Mr. Goodbar and cover up the mother's Milky Way in your Reese's C-Cups because, Baby, Ruthless men are out there, and don't have to be number Nestle's Cruncher to know that if Three Musketeers offer you 100 Grand to Take 5 minutes looking at your Mounds, your mental & physical Heath demands you give them Bar None, followed by kicking them in the Almond Joy until you hear a Krackel in their Watchamacalits. ToblerOWNED!