Last october, an Egyptian truck-driver was sentenced to three years in prison, with hard labor, for grabbing a woman's breasts in Cairo (see our previous posts).
This time, a sexual predator has been sentenced to 45 YEARS IN JAIL for assaulting nine women (no rapes), cutting up their clothes with a knife, and touching them.
A complete change in the attitude of courts towards sex offenders? Without a doubt, potential perpetrators will think twice before assaulting women. Still, the sentences seem excessive to me.The prison terms might be shorter, if the criminals were made to apologize in public, forced to attend sessions during which they would have to express their remorse, answer questions and listen to harsh criticism from victims and members of women's rights groups, perform community service in public under the supervision of male and female police officers etc.
We are 100%, or rather 99%, against "shaming sentences" which have become so popular in some American states, ("back to the good old days of the pillory"!), but in the case of men who love to humiliate women in a society which had been until now too tolerant towards sexual harassment, it might be a good deterrent until most men get the message.