Female activists hail AL-Azhar denouncement of harassment

SEE - August 29th : Al-Azhar, Egypt's highest religious authority,  took to Facebook and Twitter this week to denounce the practice of harassing women, due to their behavior or patterns of dressing.

The step taken by the religious institution stirred arguments among the activists who considered that it could be a turning point in efforts to crack down on abuse against women.

Reuters quoted Activist Lobna Darwish saying that the al-Azhar statement would create debate around the issue, even if it did not immediately change minds.

"They have the ability to promote this language against sexual harassment everywhere in Egypt... So they can at least change part of the culture," she explained. "We hope this is a new beginning or a step, a decision, a political commitment to working on sexual harassment," said Darwish, gender and women's rights officer for theEgyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

Suad Abu-Dayyeh, a Middle East expert with global advocacy group Equality Now, said it was "significant that al-Azhar has denounced sexual harassment because people in Egypt, or in our region, depend so much on the religious scholars".

But she said both government and civil society need to do more to change people's views on how women should be treated.