Cairo -- The grunts and groans of women stop several men in their tracks and send them jostling for a better glimpse at the window. Inside is a group of people who could not be less pleased to see them: a self-defence class for Egyptian women.

"Your body language has to be strong," Mary Elsouyem, the teacher, says. "The moment they start trouble, you send a harsh message letting them know that their behaviour is not acceptable."

Her class, which meets once a week in the upper-class Cairo neighbourhood of Maadi, is one of dozens that has been started across Cairo. Eight other women were learning with The Times: five wore veils, one was a Coptic Christian, another was three months pregnant. All the women said that they faced harassment daily.

"I thought it was so normal for us to take this abuse. We've let the men get away with it for too long," Sarai Khella, 23, who was brought up in central Cairo, said. For years she kept her head down while men hissed and catcalled on the street.

She decided to learn how to defend herself after a man tried to grope her on the underground. "During the day there's the women's car. But at night everyone rides together.

"He tried to press his hand under my shirt and I was so scared I waited for the subway to stop and then I ran." Now she has now learnt a series of easy manoeuvres that she can use to break out of a hold, or cause a bit of pain in a hurry. The teacher demonstrates how women can use their heads, arms and knees to jab at attackers. A favourite in the class appears to be an elbow to the gut.

When one women wondered if it was haram -- forbidden -- to respond so aggressively to a man, the teacher replied that she was acting to prevent an already haram situation.

A study conducted by the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights in Cairo reported that nearly 83 per cent of Egyptian women and 98 per cent of foreign women said that they had been sexually harassed in Egypt. More than 62 per cent of men who were surveyed admitted that they had harassed women.

The study found that regardless of what women wore they were still hit upon. Approximately one third were wearing a headscarf and conservative clothing and one fifth were in a full veil and cloak.

According to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Egypt has one of the highest number of cases reported by British nationals regarding sexual harassment.

Technology-savvy youths in Egypt have started dozens of campaigns on social networking sites and blogs to try to tackle the problem. One group tried to organise a website on which women could post photographs and publically shame men who have behaved indecently, based on a similar site in New York.

The Government has issued a pamphlet called Sexual Harassment: Causes and Solutions, and put up posters across Cairo advising women to dress and behave modestly.

Most people, however, argue that it is part of a bigger problem -- one that most Egyptians would rather ignore. Sexual relationships are restricted in the religious country where 20 per cent of the population live on less than $2 a day and men and women must often wait years until they can afford to get married. Pornography, which is illegal, has become widespread because of the internet and mobile telephones.

When The Times arrived in Egypt the problem was illustrated immediately. After some difficulty finding the house of a friend the taxi driver asked if I wanted to make a telephone call. A smiled response was a mistake.

After checking the address scribbled on the back of a receipt we arrived at the right place; he insisted on lifting my bags out of the boot and handed me his mobile telephone. On the screen was a photograph of a large, smiling, naked woman with her legs wrapped around a palm tree. "Yes, you want sex?" he asked.

The women in the self-defence class laughed at the story -- most said that a refusal to pay his fare had probably stung more than a tirade of insults and a brush-off.

"Next time, you can do this," our teacher said, demonstrating a sharp jab to the neck. Everyone laughed. Nobody doubted that there would be a next time.

Campaign for safety

-- In Japan, where two thirds of women report being groped while travelling, police officers went undercover on the railways to arrest men with wandering hands

-- In 2006, the Mexican Government ran a campaign against sexual harassment in the workplace -- using images of blow-up dolls dressed as secretaries and maids, who were groped by colleagues. Vicente Fox, President at the time, endorsed the campaign. He had been criticised for describing women as "washing machines with two legs"

-- Last year, 13 Bulgarian women filed a complaint about adverts by the Bulgarian alcohol producer Peshtera, which showed pop stars in bikinis with watermelons in front of their breasts. The women said that the adverts constituted harassment

-- Women-only trains have been introduced on commuter routes in Mumbai after a campaign

-- In Egypt a booklet was distributed to 50,000 imams this year listing causes and solutions to harassment from an Islamic perspective

By Sheera Frenkel
women.timesonline.co.uk