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Sexual harassment and violence against women on the streets of Cairo has been endemic, women haven’t felt safe enough to walk or take public transport. But has a scheme reimagining how cities are designed made women feel safer?
Salma El-Wardany was born in Cairo and knows what it feels like to be a woman getting around the city.
Through radical urban redesigns, women friendly spaces and spreading the message to raise awareness, the hope is that a pioneering programme called ‘Safer Cities’ has been the solution for Egypt.
Salma wants to meet the women behind its success and the women benefitting from these changes.
Salma will meet the urban designer behind the redesign of Zenein Market in Giza to create a ‘gender-sensitive’ market, and she’ll hear from the female vendors about the improvements.
She then travels to Ezbet El Haganah to meet the mums of schoolchildren noisily playing under the new floodlights at an upgraded football field in a traditionally dangerous slum area.
Salma meets women in a fishing village in Damietta, who have been provided with tools to process the fish, to help empower them while the men are away fishing.
Redesigning Cairo so it feels safer is progress, but the scheme has had to focus on making sure men are engaged with this huge problem. Salma will meet Tuk-Tuk drivers who are now training others so women can travel safely – but this is against the backdrop of the recent death of a woman who jumped from a speeding tuk tuk to avoid an attack.
There have been huge strides made in safety in the country but how much is that down to projects like this? Salma finds out if the city she loves to come back to is safe for her and other women.