#MeToo sheds light on sexual harassment worldwide

CAIRO – 17 October 2017: The hashtag #MeToo blew up social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter, with stories of women and men who have experienced sexual assault and harassment to show the significance of this epidemic.

The movement was started by feminist and women’s rights advocate Tarana Burke over 10 years ago to show solidarity with victims of sexual assault. Burke gave voice to the victims through her [

website

].

Shout out to my girl @taranaburke who has been advocating for assault victims & saying #MeToo for years. https://t.co/myOqjWJKx2 pic.twitter.com/0c4grmUOju

— Britni Danielle (@BritniDWrites) October 16, 2017

On Sunday, actress and activist Alyssa Milano revived the “Me Too” movement by encouraging women to speak up about their sexual harassment and assault experiences in an attempt to “give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.”

If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet. pic.twitter.com/k2oeCiUf9n

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 15, 2017

The hashtag took over the internet and was trending on Twitter worldwide. #MeToo has almost 500,000 tweets and 1.7 million people talking about it on Facebook. The campaign inspired survivors to share their stories online in order to empower other women to tell their stories.

#METOO popularity on Social Media
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The Egyptian government has deemed sexual harassment a crime under the Egyptian Penal Code with penalties ranging from six months to five years in jail, and a fine up to LE 50,000.