For the past few days, his name has spread like wildfire on Egyptian social media. Some of their victims, more than a hundred, have related the nightmare of sexual harassment, extortion and even rape to which Ahmed Bassam Zaki , a young Egyptian who was currently studying in Barcelona, subjected them . The story of the "sexual predator" who for years attracted himself has managed to break the silence surrounding the epidemic in Egypt and get him arrested while the investigation progresses.
The Egyptian prosecution has reported in the last hours that Ahmed, educated in the most elite universities in the Arab country and currently enrolled in the EU Business School in Barcelona, has been arrested in Egypt after one of his victims filed a complaint alleging that in November 2016, the alleged attacker threatened her with the purpose of forcing her to have sexual relations. Judicial authorities have launched an investigation to shed light on her history of sexual violence.
The persecution of Ahmed began this week from a complaint published two years ago on a Facebook group at the American University in Cairo, the exclusive institution where the young man studied between 2016 and 2018. The alleged victim accused Ahmed of harass her and detailed the details of a harassment that had gone unnoticed until a few days ago, when the sudden appearance of thousands of comments led the group administrator to eliminate the complaint. Then, the cascade of reactions started that for days has made the label "The rapist Ahmed Bassam Zaki" trending on Twitter.
More than 150 women who suffered harassment have shared their experience on an Instagram account, @assaultpolice, which a few days after its creation already has 136,000 followers. "She convinced me to go to a meeting with her friends.. ...) When I arrived she told me that the rest could not come," narrates one of her victims. "He started asking me to kiss him. I said no. I started crying but instead of seeing what was happening to me, he kissed me. We were alone in a housing development and I feared for my life. I didn't know what to do. He didn't stop . my pants. I said no. I couldn't believe what was happening, "says one of the published testimonies.
"I don't remember how I could call a friend to ask him to pick me up. I don't remember how long I cried," adds the victim, who, after that dramatic encounter, also had to endure that in the days that followed, Ahmed threatened to release an intimate video. to force a new appointment. "It turned my life into hell," she recalls. Her detailed account coincides with the "modus operandi" to which her long string of victims, including minors, were subjected - in one of the testimonies, the girl was only 14 years old when the events occurred.
On other occasions, Zaki was trying to share with the victims' families photographs or compromised messages , taking advantage of the rules of a conservative society and obsessed with preserving public modesty and virginity until marriage. "She was 19 years old and she was 20 when I naively fell in love with her. One day she took me to her house taking advantage of the fact that it was empty. When I realized that we were in her room, I asked her young woman.
The family reaction was even more painful. "My mother took away my phone and laptop and forced me to delete all accounts on social networks. She forced me to leave the country. Now I am alone, without family . My friends do not speak to me because I ignored them. I see the Ahmed's face every time I look in the mirror, "he concludes.
More than 150 complaints
A torrent of evidence of blackmail and harassment, from the threatening and humiliating audio messages he sent to the women who suffered their hunt to the crossings of messages on social networks, have been exposed by a campaign that continues to search for investigations. "To date we have collected more than 150 complaints of sexual harassment. Many of them include physical attacks but we want to clarify that in order to prosecute him, the court needs the survivors to testify against this monster," they say from the Instagram account created so that Ahmed ended up rendering accounts.
Since the institute, Ahmed has been leaving a trail of victims linked to his changes of educational center and his changes of country. The complaints also reach the city of Barcelona , where he had been established for months to study in the classrooms of the EU Business School. One of her colleagues has reported on social networks the assault she suffered in a downtown elevator. "He pushed me against the wall of the r- rise . It was a long time before the doors opened. I suffered from depression and ended up leaving school," says the young woman.
Other of his victims during his academic life in Spain remember the tone of his messages. "During a class, he wrote me a chain of messages. He told me that I looked like a porn actress and asked me about the size of my breasts ... I ignored him but kept writing to me. I told him I had a boyfriend and he asked me if I had had sex with him and that with him it would be better. " The Barcelona center has confirmed the suspension of Ahmed. "We have a zero tolerance policy towards this type of behavior that goes against our values," says the institution on its social networks.
Revelations about Ahmed have refocused on the sexual harassment epidemic that has been sweeping the streets of the most populous country in the Arab world for years. Allegations of a silent reality that has begun to shake fear in 2014 managed to modify the Egyptian penal code to toughen penalties for abuse. However, fear of the reaction of the immediate environment still causes many victims to refrain from reporting it in the country's police stations. According to a UN Women study published in 2017, around 60% of Egyptians have experienced an episode of harassment.
The relentless publication of complaints led the Egyptian National Council for Women, an Egyptian state body, to file a complaint with the attorney general's office fearing that Ahmed might try to flee the country. "The council has followed the Instagram account that was launched by girls and women reporting that a man had raped, sexually harassed or harassed them, threatening to use photographs and video clips documenting their heinous crimes."
Far from fighting it as a priority, the Egyptian regime has tried to impose censorship and persecute activists who have denounced police passivity and judicial obstacles. Two years ago, a Lebanese tourist was sentenced to eight years in prison for complaining on Facebook about sexual harassment. The case ended with her deportation. The impunity that for more than five years marked Ahmed's sexual hunt - with the silence and negligence of the educational centers through which he passed - has left a long list of victims, now united by the solidarity of those who demand the repair of the Justice.
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