 |
| Colonel Roqayah El-Seify speaking to women passengers in the metro (Photo: Reem Gehad) |
[This story was originally published on Ahram Online on 2 October 2013]
As crowds increase on Cairo’s underground with the return to school and closure of a central station connecting two main metro lines, a female police force has appeared on busy trains.
Colonel Roqayah El-Seify, 57, saluted high-ranking officials as she walked into the police office at Shohada metro station in downtown Cairo, one of the city’s busiest stations.
She wore a white police suit, pink-coloured make-up and a black headscarf under her police cap.
“We work with policemen in order to secure and protect the metro - trains and stations,” she told Ahram Online.
The female force on the metro includes officers and lower-ranking police personnel. El-Seify says at least ten women are part of this force. They come from a larger women's division within the Interior Ministry, recruited mostly from administrative positions.
Their task in the metro is primarily focused on the two carriages allocated for women on each train.
“We secure these carriages through moving patrols inside them, raising awareness of pickpockets, beggars and harassers,” she said.
Passengers in the female-only carriages often complain about men who ride in them, especially during late hours, as sexual harassment has become a daily issue for most women in Cairo.
More than 99 percent of hundreds of women surveyed in seven of the country's 27 governorates reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment, ranging from minor harassment to rape, according to a report issued by the UN, Egypt's Demographic Centre and the National Planning Institute in April.