Dressed in a Spiderman costume and holding his hands up high in a victory sign, Yassin, a six-year-old student, has fought his own battle. He conquered the 80-year-old school official who assaulted him sexually several times. Last Wednesday, the Damanhour Criminal Court sentenced the school official to life imprisonment, equivalent to 25 years, for the sexual assault of young Yassin using threats to do so in a private school in the Beheira Governorate.
The case has provoked widespread anger on social-media platforms particularly after it was reported that Yassin had been assaulted multiple times in the school restroom and garage. The incidents took place last year when Yassin’s mother noticed the boy’s behaviour was changing. After the case was closed due to insufficient evidence, the court ordered its reopening in January following a ruling from a judge.
There is growing awareness of such issues today, particularly after Lam Shamseya, the television drama series which tackled the issue, sparked discussion about child sexual harassment and its prevalence in some sections of society. The Egyptian TV series, released during Ramadan this year, has given voice to voiceless children who have experienced child sexual abuse. It has helped to reshape the image of the child molester, as well as the victim, and it has raised awareness among families about the importance of addressing this issue and fighting for justice without fear or pressure.
Child sexual abuse has been seen as a taboo topic for many decades, but Lam Shamseya starring Amina Khalil and Ahmed A-Saadany with young star Aly Al-Bealy has raised this controversial issue, demanding a conversation about it that for too long has been buried under layers of stigma and silence.
Directed by Karim Al-Shennawy and written by Mariam Naoum, the series acted as an alarm bell on many topics that have been rarely tackled in the media. It not only addressed this issue, but it also unearthed other ones that the media has sometimes shied away from, seeing them as uncomfortable truths.
“The series has come at an excellent time because nowadays we have seen many cases of child sexual abuse. Just two weeks before the series was aired, we all heard of the incident of a little girl who had been sexually exploited,” said Mona Lamloum, a child and adolescent mental health consultant.
“Such incidents have sadly become all too common in Egyptian society,” Lamloum added. She addressed the silence on the issue by saying that in some ways the attacker may be protected by society as the victims still rarely speak out. As long as society does not address the issue seriously, and as long as the vulnerable are not heard, the harassers will continue to act with impunity, she said.
What makes the matter worse is that the victims are children. They might not know that wrong has been done, and they might not report it to the relevant authorities.
Lamloum added that the TV series had underlined many serious issues. “The main one is the sexual abuse of children, but within it there are also many underlying topics like how to solve the issue, how to manage the consequence of such acts on families, how fathers should stay close to their sons, and how mothers should deal with their children’s feelings.”
Most important is how children can recover from such traumatic experiences, which may have long-term effects on them and their mental health.
Lamloum added that one of the common mistakes parents make is believing that children do not require education on sexual matters or that this does not need to take place within the family.
“We often hear that we should not raise this issue with children, but this is totally wrong as parents must educate their children on what’s right and what’s wrong and what is within the circle of trust,” she said.
CONSENSUS: Pakinam Al-Hefnawy, a pediatrician, agrees. The creator of the Facebook page “Dr Pakinam ElHefnawy 911,” she says that children as early as the age of three should know about what is good and what is bad when it comes to touching. They should know how to dress and whom to get dressed and undressed in front of.
“From the time they are newborns, infants’ diapers must be changed privately, so that they can to get used changing their clothes privately later. Parents should provide their children with the warmth and safety necessary for them to feel confident that they can always talk to them and that they will always be listened to,” Al-Hefnawy said.
“You can bring in dummies and favourite teddy bears to show children what means yes and what means no,” she added. “‘Nobody can touch you here’ can be an example that can be repeated until it is understood.”
“Some parents might deny or neglect the issue, not believing that abuse could ever happen to their children. But abuse happens, and it can even take place from people who are close to the family,” Al-Hefnawy, herself the mother of two small children, said.
“Children might assume that being polite means they must respect all adults and do what they say. But this can make children more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse by adults,” she added.
According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, there can be issue about how some adults respond to reports of child sexual abuse. The adult may feel uncomfortable and may not know what to say or do. One of the academy’s main guidelines is that parents must respond without judgement to a child who is disclosing sexual abuse as this is essential to their healing from trauma.
In addition, the child must be assured that he or she did the right thing in sharing and disclosing the information. Some children might become threatened by a molester as a punishment for telling others what has happened, so parents must be open to all possible scenarios and never blame the child for being the victim.
Parents must be open to their children and must answer them straightforwardly. “Listening to your child is the key point. Many parents may take their children’s crying and worries for granted, unaware that they might be the ones walking them towards their perpetrators. When a child is afraid of someone or does not want to sit with someone, that could be an alarm call for the parents,” Lamloum said.
“Do not leave your child alone with anyone. Do not let anyone play with your child without your presence. If your child is aged 10 or more, you can open the topic with them in a friendly way, acknowledging the threats and dangers that might be surrounding them.”
After the broadcast of the TV series and the bringing of Yassin’s case to public attention, many parents have become more aware of the psychological and emotional needs of children. Raising awareness in schools, mosques, churches, and clubs is important, since if people in general become more aware of such threats, they will be more likely to be reported and less likely to happen.
However, while the media has broken the silence on this issue, that in itself is not enough to end the problem. It has made people look at it with a more critical eye and become more aware of it. It has also redefined the victim and has opened the door to a culture of openness and honesty rather than of cover-ups and secrecy.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 8 May, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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