Enabling sexual harassment: Citroen accused over ‘creepy’ advert

Car manufacturer Citroen has sparked uproar for an advert featuring acclaimed Egyptian pop star Amr Diab that people claims promotes sexual harassment in a country where attacks on women are notoriously rife.

The 12-second advert which was released earlier this month features Diab, a new brand ambassador nearly hitting a woman with his car as she crosses the road. Diab then uses a new feature of the vehicle - a camera on the rearview mirror - to take a photograph of the woman apparently without her consent that he downloads to his phone.

The slogan then reads “Snap every beautiful moment”. In the full clip, they are later seen driving together.

Twitter users slammed the advert for normalising harassment in a country where a 2013 United Nations report found that a staggering 99.3 per cent of women in Egypt had experienced some form of sexual harassment.

Many dubbed it “the creepiest ad ever”  with others saying it was “gross” and “shockingly misguided”.

“Taking a picture of a woman without her consent is creepy. You’re enabling sexual harassment,” wrote Reem Abdellatif, an American Egyptian writer on Twitter.

“Sexual harassment and assault are pandemics stalking the Middle East, aided by fear and the impunity granted to perpetrators. Yet somehow  Citroen and Amr Diab thought an ad enabling the crime would be a good idea,” she added.

Sexual harassment and gender-based violence have long been rife in Egypt where rights groups say perpetrators have enjoyed virtual impunity for the attacks.

In July the Egyptian parliament did approve harsher penalties for sexual harassment and related crimes and upgraded them to felony offences, aiming to curb sex-related assaults.

But campaigners say the problem remains as a deep-rooted bias in Egypt places the blame on women for their “provocative” behaviour rather than the male perpetrators.

Public prosecutors controversially in  May shelved a case over a woman’s allegation that she was gang-raped at a luxury hotel in Cairo in 2014 because of "insufficient evidence" against the defendants.