• The correspondent's look: The highest Sunni authority declares war on sexual harassment

She is 15 years old and last July began a nightmare that has kept her behind bars. A minibus driver kidnapped her in the barren outskirts of Cairo and tried to rape her. The teenager struggled with her executioner and ended up stabbing him deadly. His case, which has just broken into the courts, has become an icon of the Egyptian struggle for their rights and a challenge for a judicial system in question.

"It was the girl who voluntarily surrendered to the police after killing the man who tried to rape her," says EL MUNDO Intisar Said, president of the Cairo Foundation for Law and Development, the organization that provides legal assistance. According to her story, the young woman snatched the knife with which she was threatening the driver and stabbed her several stabs before leaving the scene. "He worked in a factory to help his family. He had left school," says the lawyer.

Since then, she remains under arrest awaiting trial. After her detention, the adolescent was subjected to a "virginity test" , a practice censored by the international community that the Egyptian authorities are reluctant to abandon and that dusts bitter memories among the activists. On March 9, 2011, just a few weeks after the dictator's decline and with the military board guarding the transition, a protest on the occasion of International Women's Day ended with 17 participants detained, abused and forced to comply with a virginity test .

The case of the adolescent who stood up to her aggressor - unpublished until now in Egypt - has created extensive media coverage in the most populous country in the Arab world, becoming an example of the victimization that still subdues women suffering from the epidemic of sexual harassment. The prosecution, however, has been adamant, blocking a previous decision of a court that had ordered his release and extending his detention.

"The prosecution has rejected the request for release, which now depends on the forensic report," said Said. "The evidence is in favor of the girl but the accusations are very serious. She is blamed for being in possession of a knife and premeditated murder despite the fact that she declared that the knife belonged to the rapist and that, in full struggle, he managed to take it away, "adds his legal representative.

Their hopes, however, face a conservative society where harassment of women and gender-based violence are still taboos. "It is a special and very difficult case. A case that demonstrates the double standards of Egyptian society, which defends men who kill their women and daughters under the pretext of honor," argues Said, also a victim of those who claim revenge . "When I posted my opinion on this case on Facebook, some lawyers criticized me claiming that some girls don't wear decent clothes."

His defense is now that the young woman can consider herself a warden of a "crime of honor", a crime usually reserved for revenge perpetrated by men against female members of her family who have dishonored the clan. The offense, typified in the Egyptian penal code, includes penalties less than murder. "We are trying to apply the crime of honor to reduce his sentence to a maximum of three years in prison," admits Said.

If the judge ends up sentencing in the terms requested by the prosecution, the child could spend at least 15 years behind bars. She would remain in a juvenile center until she reached the age of majority, when she would be transferred to a jail. The battered local feminist organizations have made their Calvary a flag, demanding their acquittal. "If it were released, it would be an unprecedented event in the history of the Egyptian judiciary," says Said.

"Men and women should be equal before justice but, unfortunately, that does not happen here. Some laws distinguish between sexes as in the case of debauchery or prostitution, " denounces the lawyer. "Society should stop supporting the violence of a man who discovers an infidelity of his wife and kills her. Then everyone applauds but instead criticizes whether it is a woman who murders her husband."

The allegations of the ubiquitous sexual harassment, a silent reality that has begun to shake off fear, in 2014 achieved the modification of the Egyptian penal code to tighten penalties for abuse. However, fear of the reaction of the closest environment still causes many victims to refrain from reporting it to the country's police stations. According to a study by UN Women published in 2017, about 60% of Egyptians have suffered some episode of harassment.

A few weeks ago, Said visited the young woman for the last time in her cell, whose action has sparked public debate. "She is a strong girl and her family is supporting her. She should be in shock but, on the other hand, she says she is fine," says her lawyer, impatient for the outcome. "I hope he can go free," he babbles.

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