Sexual harassment: perception and experience among female college students of Kafrelsheikh University

Background: Increasing concerns are rising over women and adolescence in Arabic societies generally, and in Egyptian society specifically. Objectives: To identify the profile and reasons of the problem of sexual harassments among female college students. Methods: A cross-sectional study including randomly selected 976 female students from different faculties of Kafrelsheikh University using a predesigned questionnaire sheet. Results: The main perceived concept of sexual harassment was touching body (63.9%) followed by uncomfortable behaviors by the assault (51.8%). Among urban students, 47.1% reported frequent sexual harassment as compared to 26.5% among rural students. The main motives to harassment were absence of sanctions (42.8%) followed by masculine culture. Absence of punishment ranked first (54.1%) as one of reasons for the phenomenon of harassments in the community followed by wrong concepts about women (46%). The main reaction to harassment was feeling bad and wishing to act (32.9%) followed by feeling bad but helpless (26.0%). Only 25.5% reported taking proper action. Experience of harassment was significantly more reported by urban students compared to rural ones (12.6% and 4.1%, respectively (P = 0.001). Conclusion: Sexual harassment is not uncommon from of violence especially in urban areas mainly due to absence of sanctions and majority did not have capacity to take proper actions.