New ‘Harass Map’ helping Egyptian women to fight against sexual harassment

Washington: Now, an innovative tool has emerged in Egypt to empower female victims of crimes like verbal harassment, groping, stalking and indecent exposure.

The new map app named ‘HarassMap’, aims to stop the social acceptability of sexual harassment in the North African country. According to the CNN, HarassMap uses a simple SMS-based system to enable victims and witnesses to anonymously report sexual harassment incidents as soon as they happen. Rebecca Chiao, who co-founded HarassMap, said a user needs to dial 6069 and then type ‘what happened and where’ The incoming reports is then verified and placed on a Google map of Egypt, creating a web-based documentation of the extent of the problem. When sexual harassment hotspots are identified, HarrassMap volunteers visit these areas as part of a community outreach program aimed at raising awareness and ending tolerance of these kinds of incidents, the report said. The aim of this volunteer-based initiative is to stop the social acceptability of sexual harassment in the North African country. ANI