Parliament Recognizes Sexual Harassment as "Felony"

The Parliament's Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee approved, during its meeting on Sunday, headed by Ibrahim El-Henedy, a draft law submitted by MP Ashraf Rashad, head of the Parliamentary Committee for the Nation's Future Party, and more than 10 members to amend the penal code regarding indecent exposure to others and sexual harassment.

The amendments stipulate tightening the penalty for indecent exposure and harassment, and converting it into a felony instead of a misdemeanor due to its extreme danger to society and its psychological repercussions on the victim.

The draft law stipulates that anyone who commits indecent exposure or sexual harassment in a public or private, including allusions, or insinuations, whether by gesture, word, or deed, by any means, including the use of electronic communications, and social media will be subject to a penalty of imprisonment for a period of no less than two years and not exceeding four years and a fine of no less than 100,000 pounds and not more than 200,000 pounds or one of these two penalties.

If the act is repeated by the offender during the pursuit, the penalty shall be imprisonment for a period of no less than three years and not exceeding five years and a fine of no less than 200,000 pounds and not more than 300,000 pounds, or either of these two penalties.

The amendments also include criminalising the commitment to benefiting from sexual exploitation and abuse. The offender shall be punished with imprisonment for a period of no less than five years and a fine of no less than 200,000 pounds and not exceeding 300,000 pounds, or either of these two penalties.

If the offender had an occupational authority over the victim, or exercised any pressure on them or if the crime was committed by two or more persons, or at least one of them was carrying a weapon, the penalty shall be imprisonment for a period of no less than 7 years and a fine of no less than 300,000 pounds and not more than 500,000 pounds.

El-Henedy confirmed that the draft law came to confront the phenomenon of exposure to others and sexual harassment, which has become a serious problem that haunts society and requires efforts to confront it from several tracks, most notably the legislative one, pointing out that the legislator intervened to prohibit this phenomenon in 2014, where it punished the crime of harassment by imprisonment for a period of no less than one year and a fine of not less than 10,000 pounds.