The Fact-Finding Committee’s Report on sexual abuses and administrative violations at AFTE

This report summarizes the findings of an independent fact-finding committee regarding allegations of sexual abuse and administrative violations at the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE).

The committee has been granted all necessary powers to investigate the allegations and complaints it received and issue recommendations acknowledging all forms of violations that might have happened to women  inside AFTE and other recommendation focusing on the policies, rules and practical principles that AFTE needs to adopt in order to introduce changes that would prevent the recurrence of such violations in the future, provide a safer and fairer work environment for women, in addition to take the necessary measures against those who have found to have committed violations or abuses.

The committee began its work in early August 2020 upon a request from AFTE’s Advisory Board of Trustees. It finalized its report in early January 2021, provided a summary of its investigations, and submitted its recommendations to the Board of Trustees for implementation.

Introduction:

As a new wave of anti-sexual violence movement emerged in Egypt in July 2020, many spoke publicly about sexual violence and discrimination in civil society and political circles.

The former director of AFTE’s Research Unit, Mohamed Nagy, admitted on social media that he had committed sexual abuses against a number of survivors and victims. He expressed his desire to be interrogated by AFTE about these abuses before he submitted his resignation. But AFTE administration rejected his resignation at the time. Following this admittance, , one of the survivors published a detailed accounbt of the sexual abuse he allegedly committed against her. Subsequently, AFTE dismissed him on 9 July 2020 due to these violations.

Meanwhile, a former AFTE staff member accused on social media the former director of AFTE, Mohamed El-Taher, of verbally abusing her for reasons related to gender-based discrimination. She also blamed AFTE for the lack of consistent policies to combat gender-based discrimination and to hold accountable perpetrators ofsexual violence against women,in all its forms..

Based on these incidents, AFTE’s Advisory Board of Trustees decided to form an independent Fact-Finding Committee to investigate sexual abuses and administrative violations, examine the reasons that led to  an insecure and unfair work environment for women at AFTE, and issue recommendations to address these issues and punish those who have found to have committed .

The committee was formed on 29 July 2020, after numerous consultations with feminist activists and leading civil society figures. It included Farida Elkalagyalagy, Michael Raouf and Salma El-Naqqash whoare civil society activists and experts in gender and sexual violence issues. The committee’s task was to develop binding recommendations for AFTE to improve its work environment in order to ensure that violations related to gender-based discrimination will not recur, provide reparations for survivors, and punish those involved in these violations  if necessary. The rules of the committee’s work were drafted by AFTE’s Advisory Board of Trustees, then reviewed, amended and approved by the three members of the committee.

The committee’s report

The committee’s work:

The committee conducted 32 interviews and investigationswith both current and former AFTE staff members in order to find out and understand  the  root causes that led to a toxic work environment that enabled a work-culture that has tolerated and accepted discrimination and sexual violence since the establishment of AFTE until today. The committee members listened to several complaints, 61% of them were related to  gender-based violations compared to 39% what were related to to administrative issues.

As illustrated in Figure 1, the complaints received by the committee included various issues such as verbal abuse, uncomfortable behaviours, bullying, abuse of power and sexual harassment. The committee did not investigate and look into all the incidents mentioned in Figure 1, but the incidents were classified according to the type of complaint. The committee submitted a 54-page report to AFTE’s Advisory Board of Trustees containing details of the investigations it conducted, taking into consideration the confidentiality conditions set by the complainants.

 

The committee investigated four main incidents related to verbal abuse against some female employees, uncomfortable male behaviours against a female colleague, and abuse of authority against a male colleague The complainants of these incidents asked the committee to open an investigation and look into their complaints and the committee agreed to do so given that these incidents are within its scope of work.

These four incidents, however, were not the only four that the committee listened to. Some former and current employees shared other incidents with the committee. These incidents included accusations of sexual harassment, gender based discrimination in the work place, bullying against women against people with diverse gender identities and against new staff members, as well as various administrative violations.

The committee decided not to investigate these complaints for a number of reasons, including the complainants’ desire not to file an official complaint against the alleged violators and to assure that they have shared with the committee the incidents in order to help the committee understand the work environment at AFTE and subsequently issue relevant recommendations to improve it.

The committee also decided that some of these incidents did not fall within its scope of work, or did not constitute a violation in the first place, or that the AFTE administration had already taken measures regarding these incidents.

In general, the committee believes that the work environment at AFTE lacks measures that would protect women from various forms of discrimination and violence. Since its inception, AFTE has not adopted a clear policy to combat sexual violence and to hold perpetrators accountable. The committee also found that AFTE does not have administrative regulations that would control the work environment and make it fair and based on the principles of accountability and transparency for all staff.

The committee noticed that the number of female employees at AFTE had decreased from 60% in 2011 to 20% in recent years, which reflects on how the work environment has become repellent to women. The committee also observed ia climate of “groupsand gangs” among some members of the work team, the spread of unprofessional practices such as insults and inappropriate jokes at the workplace, and a clear confusion between personal and work boundaries.

The committee believes that AFTE should take immediate and decisive measures to shift towards a work model that is subject to accountability, especially with regards to issues of sexual violence and discrimination against women. The committee documented several patterns of violations within AFTE (please refer to the definitions appendix on page No. 7 regarding the terms adopted by the committee):

1. Administrative violations

The committee used the term “administrative violations” to describe issues that reflecta breach of the values ​​of professionalism, as well as all acts that violate the standards of transparency, integrity and mutual respect at work. These violations do not include any acts of gender-based discrimination or violence. The administrative violations documented by the committee included verbal abuse by persons in leadership positions against employees; lack of regulations governing the relationship among employees on the one hand and their relationship with the management on the other hand; lack of a clear recruitment policy until recently; and lack of effective regulations to investigate administrative violations and hold  those who have committed a violation or abuse accountable. The committee documented unacceptable behaviours within the organization such as the use of swearwords at the workplace and during meetings, the establishment of groups among old team members against newcomers, the use of suggestive remarks between some male and female employees, angry shoutings during meetings, and the refusal by some to abide by the timekeeping rules. The committee also found that some of the employees were family relatives with current or former staff in leadership positions in the organization. The employees shared these details not for the purpose of filing complaints against specific individuals, but rather with the aim of clarifying the work environment at AFTE. The committee believes that AFTE should adopt deterrent policies against these unacceptable behaviours that create a toxic work environment.

1. Bullying

The committee used the term “bullying” to refer to acts that make an individual feel intimidated or offended, such as spreading rumours about a specific individual; unfair treatment; and picking on or regularly undermining someone. Workplace bullying can happen face-to-face, by email, or by phone. Several incidents of bullying have been reported at AFTE. These include harassment, deliberately speaking loudly and repeatedly next to a person during work in order to disrupt them, commenting inappropriately about the personal appearance of some employees and describing others as “stupid” or as “peasants”. It was mentioned to a committee an incidence where an employeeintentionally harassed his colleague just because she monitored how the team members abided by the rules and procedures of using the workplace. The committee found out that bullying had occurred frequently against new team members. It also documented incidents of bullying and ridicule by some old team members as a means of resisting the rules set by AFTE administration to enhance the principles of professionalism and accountability.

1. Gender-based sexual violence and discrimination

Gender-based sexual violence and discrimination include various forms of physical or verbal conduct of a sexual nature, sexual gestures, remarks of a sexual nature, and sexual exploitation, in the absence of consent between the two parties. Gender-based violence also includes verbal abuse that is based on gender, exclusion from managerial positionsbased on gender, the imbalance in the distribution of workload in a way that sometimes targets women, thus impeding their work and using this against them later, in addition to other forms of violence and discrimination.

The committee received complaints and testimonies from five women who previously worked or are currently working at AFTE. Their complaints are related to receiving sexual offers, unwanted stalking, or sexual harassment by some of their male colleagues who gazed at their bodies during work. However, the women preferred not to file complaints, but rather shared the incidents in order to help the committee understand the work environment at AFTE  to be able to fix it in the future and lay down rules for holding those responsible for these acts accountable.

Regarding the complaints against Mohamed Nagy, who was dismissed after he  confessed that he committed sexual abuses against more than a woman, some of those who reached out to the committee shared that Nagy might have published his confession on social media after he heard that there are testimonies being collected against him that tell incidences of violations conducted by him against victims and survivors. He published his confession after a strong wave of confrontation and release of testimonies and even after women submitted reports to the authorities against perpetrators of various forms of sexual violence. So, these surrounding circumstances might have prompted him to admit to the abuses he committed against some women during his work at AFTE. Perhaps the anti-sexual violence movement prompted him to admit to the violations he committed with the aim of change and reform, although it was not the first time that Nagy apologized for sexual abuse, which raises doubts about the seriousness of his apology. Some AFTE employees told the committee that Nagy’s abuses against women whom he had previously met, whether through his work or through his personal circles, were not a secret for the staff in AFTE. Nagy enjoyed a social authority at AFTE and he was promoted to positions until he became the director of the Research Unit before he was fired. All these indications show that if  AFTE did have an anti-harassment policy or a mechanism for internal complaints, some survivors might have resorted to it before and the decision to hold him accountable for his actions might have been taken before this year. Hence, the committee believes that it is necessary for the former administration to apologize to the staff and the audience for the lack of such policies that would have provided protection for weaker parties such as volunteers and those who deal with AFTE.

The committee sought to listen to the testimonies of Nagy’s victims to provide reparations for survivors, but it was unable to reach any of them and did not receive complaints against him. The committee members agreed that they are not entitled to investigate complaints unless they are directly received so the committee can listen to the complainants and the defendants as well.

An explicit sexual harassment incident occurred in one of the team’s workshops outside Cairo in 2018, when a staff member harassed his newly appointed female colleague during a party. Although the AFTE administration investigated the incident and issued administrative sanctions against the harasser, the victim of that incident and one of the witnesses were subjected to harassment for raising the problem related to the lack of an anti-sexual harassment policy within the organization. Some of the staff members treated the two as troublemakers and attempted to exclude them from participating in drafting the anti-harassment policy which AFTE has since sought to adopt.

The committee documented an incident of discrimination against a staff member with a diverse gender identity. Two staff members dealt aggressively with that person because of his gender identity, but he did not want to file a complaint against them. Several female employees submitted complaints alleging that they had repeatedly been subjected to verbal abuse and reprimand from a leading staff member.

Complaints investigated by the committee:

The committee received complaints regarding four incidents that the complainants requested to investigate. In three of these incidents, the complainants requested not to disclose their names or the details they revealed to the committee, provided that recommendations and the consequenceswould be issued internally in the event that these incidents were verified. The fourth complaint was submitted by a former AFTE staff member Omneya Farrag against the former executive director, Mohamed El-Taher. She accused him of verbally abusing her during the investigation into an incident of sexual harassment that Omneya was exposed to at the hands of a staff member in 2018. Omneya and a female colleague were excluded from participating in drafting an anti-sexual harassment policy after that incident. Afterlistening to the testimonies of the complainant, witnesses, and many employees who talked about incidents in which Mohamed El-Taher dealt with them with intimidation, shouting, and reprimand and after the committee made sure that El-Taher sometimes directed his verbal abuse at some women in particular, inthe form of gender-based discrimination,, the committee decided to condemn El-Taher of verbal abuse.

For more information about the verbal abuse incident, the committee attests to the credibility of Omneya Farrag’s narrative which she published on 9 July 2020.^[1]

The committee’s decisions

Based on all the aforementioned interviews and investigations, the fact-finding committee issued the following decisions:

1. A policy should be adopted for combatting sexual harassment, discrimination and all forms of gender-based violence in the workplace. This policy should be drafted before the end of April 2021 at the latest, and it should be among the official papers signed by all staff members along with work contracts. All staff members should abide by the policy as one of the conditions of working in the organization.
2. AFTE should set a permanent internal mechanism that includesa number of employees who will will be assigned to receive complaints and investigate incidents related to gender-based violence, discrimination and administrative violations in a manner that preserves the staff’s confidentiality. The internal investigations related to gender based violence or discrimination should be then presented to a female expert in gender issues from outside the organization in order to oversee the investigation procedure. The organization’s internal policy for combating sexual violence shall determine the practical arrangements for this process. The external expert has the right to receive complaints directly and confidentially from staff members and deal with these complaints in the manner that she deems appropriate.
3. All vacancies should be filled through public advertising and not through promotion.
4. Women should make up at least 40% of the total members of the organization’s executive body, which includes the executive director and unit managers.
5. AFTE should formulate and approve a financial policy that includes policies for purchasing, policies for cash spending and imprest settlement… etc., and a human resources policy that includes terms of recruitment, vacations, rewards, penalties, complaints, and mechanisms of periodic evaluation of all staff members. AFTE should also provide opportunities for training and development for its staff through travel,attending conferences and training courses. It should also enhance capacity building. These policies should be visibly and available for everyone in the organization so they can always refer to them.
6. Former executive directors should not assume any positions of the legal representative of AFTEor in the advisory board of trustees.
7. AFTE’s founder and its former executive director and legal representative Emad Mubarak should present a written apology^[2], from him and on behalf of AFTE, to all former and current staff for not adopting an anti-sexual violence policy over the past years and for the lack of clear policies that would allow for accountability and transparency as well as for the absence of effective administrative regulations.
8. AFTE’s former executive director Mohamed El-Taher should present a written apology to the staff who worked during the period of his administrationfor the verbal abuse they were subjected to.
9. AFTE’s former executive director Mohamed El-Taher should present a written apology to the former staff member, Omneya Farrag, for the verbal abuse he committed against her in more than a meeting while dealing with a sexual harassment complaint that Omneya filed against a staff member back in 2018.
10. A clear set of regulations determining the role of AFTE’s Board of Trustees should be drafted and approved. The regulations should specify the cases in which the staff members can resort directly to the board. The regulations should be available for all staff to read.
11. An expert in resolving internal conflicts, especially those that occur in the workplace, should be appointed to help improve the work environment and find ways to solve any crises within the current team so that work reaches the level of productivity required, without being hindered by tense relations within the work environment.
12. There should be full separation between the organization’s legal work that are fulfilled by the lawyers working at on the one hand and the private work of the lawyers themselves or their private offices, if any, on the other hand.
13. AFTE should receive requests for reparation for victims and survivors of sexual abuse for abuses they were subjected to at the hands of any of the organization’s employees during their work at the organization. AFTE should examine these requests, interact positively with them and discuss them with the victims/survivors and the Board of Trustees and then issue decisions thereon.

Appendix

Definitions of the terms adopted by the committee

• Administrative violations: The committee used the term “administrative violations” to describe all complaints and issues that denote a breach of the values ​​of professionalism, as well as all complaints or acts that violate the administrative rules. These acts include, for example, non-professional behaviours that harm the employees such as verbal violence against any staff member, not only women and people with diverse gender identities (because this type of violence is classified as gender-based violence). They also include violations related to the financial management of the organization’s resources, and acts that disrupt the workflow, such as exceeding the limits of professionalism among workmates.
• Workplace bullying and harassment: The website of the British government defines workplace bullying and harassment as a behaviour that makes someone feel intimidated or offended in the workplace. Examples of such behaviour include spreading malicious rumours, unfair treatment, picking on or regularly undermining someone, and denying someone’s training or promotion opportunities. Workplace bullying and harassment can happen face-to-face, by email, by phone, or by letter.^[3]
• Sexual violence (as defined by the World Health Organization)^[4]: Sexual violence is “any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, or other act directed against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting. It includes rape, defined as the physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration of the vulva or anus with a penis, other body part or object”.
• Rape^[5] (as defined by some Egyptian women’s organizations): Rape is any act that results in penetration or coerced penetration, whether with a sexual organ, other body part or object, of the vulva or anus, or penetration of the mouth with a sexual organ, no matter how slight the penetration is, and whether the victim is male or female, without their consent.
• Gender-based violence, which may not be of a sexual nature, but it naturally includes sexual abuses as well, is defined by the United Nations Population Fund (which is also available in the United Nations terminology database) as follows^[6]: any act of physical, psychological or social violence (including sexual violence) that is practiced or threatened to be practiced (such as violence, threat, coercion, or exploitation)… and the person exposed to gender-based violence does not have the option to refuse or resort to other options without severe economic, physical, psychological or social consequences.
• Staff members (individuals) with diverse gender identities: genderiyya.xyz defines the gender identity as “the personal sense of one’s own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person’s assigned sex at birth or can differ from it. Most societies have a set of gender categories that can serve as the basis of a person’s self-identity in relation to other members of society. There is a basic division between gender attributes assigned to males and females. This division is represented in the gender binary, which includes expectations of masculinity and femininity in all aspects of sex and gender, including gender identity”.^[7]

[1] Omneya Farrag’s post: https://www.facebook.com/omnia.farrag1/posts/3738935729467533

[2] The committee decided that the public apologies should be published on AFTE's official social media platforms

[3] The British government website (unofficial translation): https://www.gov.uk/workplace-bullying-and-harassment

[4] World Health Organization: https://www.who.int/ar/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women

[5] Briefing paper: Different acts of sexual violence against women, Nazra for Feminist Studies, 15 January 2014: http://www.nazra.org/node/283

[6] UNFPA Regional Strategy on Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence in the Arab States (2014-2017): https://arabstates.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/2013_ArabGBVStrategy_Arabic.pdf

[7] genderiyya.xyz - Gender Identity: https://genderiyya.xyz/wiki/%D9%87%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%A9_%D8%AC%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9