Published: 10 April 2013
Region: Egypt
Sexual harrassment against women has an enemy in Egypt, Superrmakh. He is an Egyptian superhero, inspired on Superman cartoons, who helps women and girls stop their harassers.
It is a serious issue that the majority of women have faced in the country. A study by the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights showed that more than 80% of Egyptian women were subjected to sexual harassment in 2008.
“I put a bit of myself in the character of Supermakh, and also a bit of the average Egyptian who would like to do something but is not always able to help out. It’s a superhero who succeeds, but not every time…” says Ahmed Makhlouf, the creator of Supermakh, to France 24.
Supermakh, who dresses with a flower cape and white underwear, breaks a taboo within the Egyptian society by talking openly about sexual harassment and highlights the pretexts and other factors that allow for it to continue. The comic “provides good role models for men and women to deal with sexual harassment and examples of positive gender relations”, reports Common Ground News Service.
The adventures of Supermakh, which will be published in the Egyptian comic Tok-Tok, is one among other initiatives that seeks to eradicate the problem of sexual harassment from the streets of Egypt.
In 2010, for example a grassroots initiative called Harrassmap was launched. It is an interactive tool for victims and witnesses all over Egypt to anonymously share their experiences of harassment, and to report it through mobile phones and social media. The map collects all reports with information that tells the user what kind of harassment was and where it happened.
Its aim is to encourage bystanders to speak up against harassers and have a zero-tolerance attitude towards harassment.
