Citroën withdraws ad in Egypt amid allegations of incitement to sexual harassment

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In a country like Egypt, where a 2013 UN study found that 99.3% of girls and women reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment in their lifetime and 82.6% did not felt unsafe on the street. French carmaker Citroën’s public relations team thought it would be a good idea to promote the taking of photos of women on the streets without their consent in the form of television advertising.

Well, it turns out the PR team got it wrong, and due to their lack of judgment, a mistake was made leading the French car maker through a lot of negative comments. The company ran an ad earlier this month in Egypt featuring Egyptian singer Amr Diab in a Citroën. In the ad, the 60-year-old pop star uses a camera installed in the car’s rearview mirror to secretly take a photo of a woman crossing in front of the vehicle.

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The woman who was completely unaware of the act clearly did not give consent to have her picture taken and in the following scenes she was seen driving with the singer in the car. This sparked a huge controversy in the country and many users shared their opinions on social media.

Taking a picture of a woman without her consent is scary. You allow sexual harassment. @ Citroën @ amrdiabpic.twitter.com / 0fkYmQfNQV

– Reem Abdellatif – Reem Abdellatif (@Reem_Abdellatif) December 29, 2021

One user said “taking a picture of a woman without her consent is scary,” women’s rights activist Reel Abdellatif wrote on Twitter. “You allow sexual harassment. Further, Egyptian-American journalist Reem Abdellatif also called it “scary” and added: “Who thought it would be a good idea to advertise that allows sexual harassment in a country where 98% of women said they had been harassed at some point in their life? ”

Writer Amal Alharithi also tweeted: “What is painful about Amr Diab advertising is that the whole team did not realize the mistake. No one on the team objected to taking pictures of girls on the streets without their consent. It’s so sad. ”Another critical comment on the company’s Instagram post mentioned that the company was provoking a narrative that could lead men to believe that taking an unsolicited photo of a woman could lead to a date. you, when in fact they could be jailed.

So, in response to the negative comments, the company recently removed its ad from all platforms where the ad was posted and apologized, stating, “Citroën cares about all the communities in the countries where we operate and we do not tolerate any form of harassment. The company added, “We deeply regret and understand the negative interpretation of this part of this film. With our business partner in Egypt, we have taken the decision to withdraw this advertisement from all Citroën channels and we offer our sincere apologies to all the communities offended by this film.

Recently, the Egyptian parliament also passed even severe penalties for sexual harassment, whereby offenders will be jailed for a minimum of two years instead of six months and with that a fine of between $ 6,370 (£ 4,740) and $ 12,740 (£ 9,480) will also be taxed. However, the Egyptian people have repeatedly accused the authorities of failing to take any strict action and of not investigating and prosecuting men accused of sexual harassment or assault against women and girls.

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