Egyptian Cabinet announces bill imposing tough penalty against bullies

CAIRO – 15 July 2020: The Egyptian Cabinet has proposed a new article to the Penal Code, defining bullying and toughly punishing bullies by at least six months in prison and not more than LE 30,000 ($1,878) fine or by one of the two penalties.

The bill has to be approved by the Parliament in order to be enacted.

The proposal came in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli.

This came after a series of bullying incidents in the country were recorded and circulated on social media websites. Egypt’s Attorney General has ordered investigating these cases.

“Every show of strength or domination by a perpetrator, or the exploitation of a victim’s weakness or a case that the perpetrator views as offensive to a victim, such as gender, race, religion, body descriptions, or health or mental condition, or social level, with the aim of intimidating, mocking, belittling or expelling them from their social surrounding are considered bullying,” the article read.

The penalty would be toughened in case the offense is carried out by more than one person or in case the perpetrator is one of the victim’s custodians. In this case, the crime will be punished by a fine ranging from LE 20,000 ($1,252) to LE 100,000 ($6,262) and/or a one-year imprisonment at least.

In case the crime is repeated by the same perpetrators, they would face double the penalty.

Sudanese child

Earlier in July, Egypt’s Attorney General Hamada al-Sawy ordered arresting two suspects in detention pending investigations; after accusing them of insulting a Sudanese child and violate his personal life, causing discrimination between individuals on basis of their origin.

In a statement, Sawy’s office said that the two suspects beat the child and filmed him aiming to post the video on social media.

“When the child tried to escape from his abusers, they throw him with stones and stole his stuff that he left behind in his escape attempt,” the statement explained.

Stigma #أنا_ضد_التنمر

كلنا لينا دور في إننا نوقف أي تنمر أو وصم ضد الناس اللي عندهم أعراض فيروس كورونا أو اللي بياخدوا بالهم منهم من عيلتهم أو الفريق الطبي. #فيروس_كورونا...

Coronavirus patients

The Ministry of Health in June published a video on its official Facebook page explaining the danger of bullying coronavirus patients.

In the video, the ministry called on citizens not to bully people infected with the virus, and to treat them normally, while taking preventive and precautionary measures to protect themselves from infection.

The motion graphics footage advised citizens on how to deal with COVID-19 patients without blaming them so that they do not get embarrassed or scared, or hide their illness instead of seeking help.

“This is too bad for their physical and mental health. We all have a big role in stopping any harm; specially bullying, stigma, and harsh words to patients, or doctors and nurses who take care of them,” says the video.

Child

Sawi in May ordered detaining four people for few days pending investigations, over uploading a video on social media showing youths bullying a child with special needs.

The incident took place in Qalyub, Qalyubia governorate, in Lower Egypt. The youths used a dog to intimidate the disabled child, apparently to make fun of or joke with him.

Egypt Today will not publish the video for containing material that maybe offensive to people with special needs.

By bullying the disabled child, filming him and circulating the video on social media, the arrested persons face accusations of harming a person with special needs, abusing one of the family principles and values in the Egyptian society, violating his privacy, and creating a form of discrimination against a group of people, which resulted in disturbing the public peace.

Minister of Social Solidarity Nevin Al-Qabbaj said the video has caused her to feel extremely angry as it is against humanity and law. This video contains many legal violations, including intimidating a child and abusing a disabled person, she added.

لقاء مع الشاب الصيني الذي تعرض للتنمر بسبب كورونا وسط الطريقالدائري بالقاهرة

مساء الخير أصدقائي الأعزاء❤️ قبل قليل، التقيت مع الشاب الصيني الذي تعرض للتنمر بسبب #كورونا وسط الطريق الدائري بالقاهرة، حيث عبر العديد من الأصدقاء...

Chinese man

two men noticed an Asian looking man in the backseat of a car, and the Egyptian driver was holding tissues against his mouth and nose. They began filming the man, and pushing the driver to kick the Chinese man out of the car. He got out of the car on the highway Ring Road, and tried to stop any car to take him, but the two men followed him and telling people to "run from corona."

The man looked rather confused, with him trying to avoid the two men and stop cars honking at him to get away from the middle of the road.

One of the two men posted the video on Facebook, saying "detecting a coronavirus case on the Ring Road," with the impression that he thought the video was funny. But the backlash on the video was huge, he soon had to delete his Facebook account. The identity of the two men is now known to the police, but are yet to be detained.

Numerous Egyptians shared the video, expressing their empathy with the Chinese man, lamenting the reactions of the people in the video and apologizing to the Chinese people. Arabic hashtags dubbed "together against coronavirus" and "no to racism" were trending in Egypt.

The driver told the police he was taking the Chinese man from a hotel in Maadi to Abbasiya, when he noticed that the passenger was "coughing forcefully," so he forced him to leave the car. The driver then headed home and is in quarantine in a hospital in Abbasiya.

A Chinese journalist in Egypt, Fayhaa Wang, posted a video of a group of Egyptians visiting the bullying victim in his hotel, offering him flowers and apologizing in Arabic and Chinese. Wang wrote on Facebook that the Chinese ambassador told the man the incident is not representative of the Egyptian people.