Opinion: Lara Logan Assault Exposes Egypt's Dirty Little Secret

The sexual assault of CBS reporter Lara Logan during her coverage of the revolution in Egypt is reprehensible. Her courage, for daring to make her story public, is laudable, drawing attention as it does to the contemptuous treatment of women in Egyptian society.

During the two weeks we spent in Egypt just before the revolution, we heard numerous accounts of male harassment and exploitation of women, especially white women, in that country. In a literary salon in Cairo, women spoke of being touched and fondled by strange men as a common occurrence.

In a private conversation, a professional belly dancer said she and her fellow dancers were pressured by her manager to provide sexual services, then were punished when they refused. Back home, an American woman who had traveled there alone reported being groped on the subway.

I met many men in Egypt who treated me as an equal. Flanked at almost all times by my American boyfriend and my Egyptian tour guide, I was not harassed -- not unless you count burning stares from men along the streets and in cars, including the ubiquitous policemen.

"Don't make eye contact," our tour guide said. "It's seen as an invitation." His wife, a Brazilian Muslim who wears the hijab, has found the middle finger to be an effective response, he said.

I was fortunate, it turns out. According to a report released in 2008 by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, 98 percent of non-Egyptian women are sexually harassed in Egypt.

It's tempting to point that middle finger at Islam. Muslim men's attitudes toward non-Muslim women seems comparable to the sexual objectification of female slaves in U.S. history. But Muslim women, even those who wear the shrouding niqab, are victims too. Eighty-three percent of Egyptian women say they've been sexually harassed.

But Islam teaches that women are to be respected. Muhammad was disturbed by the harassment of women on the streets of Mecca in the seventh century. He would be mortified by the situation in Egypt today.

Rape knows no boundaries; neither does sexual harassment. It's not a problem exclusive to Egypt or to Islam. It's a cultural problem, born of the will to power. Now that Egyptians -- male and female -- have reclaimed their power by overthrowing their dictator, will they take the next step and include women in the process of rewriting the Constitution, making laws and electing leaders? So far, this does not appear to be the case. Women are going to have to demand their due.

Feminist ideals can't be exported any more than revolution can. Change in any culture must come from within. But if anything good comes out of Logan's shameful assault, perhaps it will be this: that Egypt, its misogyny now exposed and scrutinized under the harsh glare of the media spotlight, may be forced to reckon with the fact that not all are created equal there. And perhaps now the voices of the many thousands of women who shouted for freedom in Egypt will, at last, be heard.

Sherry Jones is the author of "The Jewel of Medina" and "The Sword of Medina," novels about the Prophet Muhammad's favorite wife, and the forthcoming "Four Sisters, All Queens," scheduled for publication by Simon & Schuster's Gallery imprint in spring/summer 2012. Read her blog on Red Room.