{"id":41416,"date":"2019-11-01T21:22:30","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T21:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41416"},"modified":"2019-11-01T21:22:30","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T21:22:30","slug":"lebanon-sentences-uk-diplomats-murderer-to-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41416","title":{"rendered":"Lebanon sentences UK diplomat\u2019s murderer to death"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nCAIRO: Abuse of women and children is a topic that has long been silenced or tabooed in many cultures worldwide, including in the Middle East.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nSocial entrepreneur Laila Risgallah has made it her life\u2019s work to try to stem the blight of abuse in her native country Egypt.<\/p>\n

\nViolence against women is rampant in the most populous Arab country.\u00a0 A 2013 UN study revealed that 99.3 percent of Egyptian women had experienced harassment in some form.<\/p>\n

\nAbout a decade ago, Risgallah founded Not Guilty, an education and counselling service with a mission to stop the abuse and bullying of children and adolescents.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cViolence against females is based on pervasive and deep-seated beliefs and behaviors, making it difficult to root out with legal penalties or superficial changes in society,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\nAccording to research by the Population Council, nearly two-thirds of Egyptian men surveyed admitted to harassing women, and nearly 80 percent of Egyptian males aged 15\u201329 said a woman who is harassed \u201cdeserves it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nJust over 70 percent of women in the same survey said \u201cimmodestly dressed\u201d women deserve being abused.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cChild sexual abuse occurs at all socioeconomic levels, across all ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education,\u201d said Risgallah. \u201cBy making sure that we\u2019re educated and informed on this issue, we can prevent children from going through this heinous experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThrough training held by Not Guilty in schools, she discovered that up to 15 percent of children have been exposed to abuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nBut as little as 10 percent of overall abuse cases are reported due to the shame, guilt and stigma associated with reporting, Risgallah said.<\/p>\n

\nWith the issue of abuse being so complex and endemic in society, she believes that ending harassment will not be achieved simply by implementing sterner laws. \u201cPrevention is always easier, better and less costly than rehabilitation and treatment,\u201d said Risgallah<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOur goal is to raise a generation of kids, youth, parents, leaders and teachers who hate, refuse and fight abuse,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cNot Guilty is working toward achieving this goal through raising awareness of the dangers and consequences of sexual harassment in order to achieve a safe environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nRisgallah, who has a Ph.D. in childhood studies and a bachelor\u2019s degree in psychotherapy, said the sentiment of her organization is crystalized in its name. \u201cThe name realizes and underlines that abuse has never, ever been the victim\u2019s fault,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\nNot Guilty uses a three-pronged approach to address abusive relationships.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThe NGO trains children aged 3-18 on how to respond if abuse happens, advises parents on how to protect their children against abuse, and shows teachers and caregivers how to spot abuse and what to do if a case is reported.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cPre-training children is a unique approach since most people work on sexual abuse after it happens,\u201d Risgallah said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cMost schools hold earthquake drills and fire drills, so why not hold an anti-sexual abuse drill?\u201d<\/p>\n

\nNot Guilty trains children on how to protect themselves through the interactive program SKIT, using songs, skits, games, coloring and puppets.<\/p>\n

\nRisgallah said her organization faces constant opposition from stakeholders on all sides. \u201cPeople don\u2019t know that sexual abuse is rampant, and if they do know, they don\u2019t think it\u2019s such a big deal,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe damage wrought by sexual harassment is never spoken about. It\u2019s a taboo subject, so it\u2019s hardly ever reported,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWherever we go \u2014 whether we go to schools, nurseries, orphanages or other non-profits \u2014 we\u2019re greeted with the same words: \u2018We have no cases of sexual abuse here\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nBut Risgallah has no plans to give up on changing attitudes in Egypt and beyond anytime soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nNot Guilty has so far trained more than 9,000 children and teens, 4,000 parents, 1,000 teachers and 230 factory workers \u2014 both male and female. The NGO also continues to provide counselling and support services for victims of abuse.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cChildren need to know that they\u2019re not alone if they face sexual abuse,\u201d Risgallah said. \u201cWe\u2019re witnessing a true impact and change in many parts of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u2022 The Middle East Exchange is one of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Global Initiatives that was launched to reflect the vision of the UAE prime minister and ruler of Dubai in the field of humanitarian and global development, to explore the possibility of changing the status of the Arab region. The initiative offers the press a series of articles on issues affecting Arab societies.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAIRO: Abuse of women and children is a topic that has long been silenced or tabooed in many cultures worldwide, including in the Middle East.\u00a0 Social entrepreneur Laila Risgallah has made it her life\u2019s work to try to stem the blight of abuse in her native country Egypt. Violence against women is rampant in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":41417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}