A study found that 83% of Egyptians and 98% of foreigners experienced harassment in Cairo. Daniel Williams of the Times interviewed a group of girls who practice karate to "keep bad people away." A monthly magazine in Cairo has been running testimonials about women's harassment experiences, including the story of a woman whose buttocks were groped when she was walking with a friend. And Madiha el-Safty, a sociology professor at the American University in Cairo, says, "Changes for women are surface improvements. There is a deeper cultural problem: male hostility toward women who want to do more than stay at home."

Safty remembers a Cairo, less than 20 years ago, in which women could wear sundresses and short skirts. Now most wear long sleeves and headscarves, but the traditional wisdom that such coverings protect them from the advances of men seems untrue. 72% of the women who reported harassment were wearing headscarves at the time.

Egypt's National Council for Women, which should by all rights be addressing these issues, is in denial. Mohamed Nasef, a spokesman for the organization, says reports are "exaggerated," but also that harassment "happens everywhere." Of course, no one would use the everyone's-doing-it argument to excuse, say, murder, but obviously public humiliation, inappropriate touching, and even rape aren't crimes that the National Council for Women takes seriously. So far only one man has been convicted of harassment in Egypt, and National Council for Women leader Suzanne Mubarak says, "Egyptian men always respect Egyptian women." Since their government won't defend them, Cairo's women and girls must defend themselves. Karate student Nada Gamal Saad says, "No one is going to touch me when I can hit them real hard."

Covered Up, and Harassed, in Cairo [New York Times]

Here's a more detailed account of how it went down, according to the Guardian's Mary O'Hara:

Vegas stepped on stage to cheers and immediately announced that he had no material, and that he was there mostly to get laid. There followed a short meandering ramble (mainly about lap dancers) before he turned his attention to the audience - and to one young woman in particular in the front row who, he announced, he wanted to be 'inside'...The woman he focused on was about 18 or 19 and was very obviously unnerved by his attention...Once she was on stage, Vegas told her to lie very still. She couldn't stop her nervous giggling; he threatened to kick her in the ribs. It didn't come across to me as a joke - and near to where I was sitting, no one was laughing. Eventually Vegas crouched down beside the nervous girl and started stroking her breasts while repeatedly saying, "don't fucking move". Then he ran his hand up her leg and began pulling her skirt up. Every time he looked up to address the audience, she would reach down and pull her skirt back down, but he kept pulling it back up.

Supporters of Vegas on the Not BBC forums and elsewhere argue that at no time did the woman refuse Vegas's advances; another commenter said he particularly enjoyed the "the discomfort [Vegas inspired] in the predominately middle-class section of the audience I was sitting in." Mary O'Hara and others point out that the woman, young as she was, may have felt she couldn't say "no", as Vegas was singling her out in a crowd full of cheering, jeering people and that she had no idea what was going to happen once she got onstage, and perhaps felt unable to fight back.

This is complete conjecture, but in an interview with the Guardian from two years ago, writer Decca Aitkenhead talks about how when Pennington created his "Johnny Vegas" angry-drunk-aggressive persona, he was "bitter and directionless, drifting between bar jobs in London and Glasgow. By 25 he still hadn't had a girlfriend." He created "Vegas" after he moved back in with his parents. Is Johnny's treatment of this woman payback for all those women who rejected him in late teens and early 20s? It's unclear. What is pretty evident, however, is that Vegas crossed the line on Friday night and called it "comedy." James Williams on Not BBC put it this way: "I don't like to think that any area is out of bounds for comedy, even if the comedy is lazy nonsense (which on this occasion, I think it mostly was) - but that really only applies when you're talking about words and ideas. Once you've got someone pinned down on the stage, it becomes a rather different matter... Really, did no one else see it?"

Since When Is Sexual Assault Funny? [Guardian]
Here's Johnny! [Guardian]
Johnny Vegas Thread [Not BBC]

We guess this means Harry Hamlin isn't exactly delivering the goods!

[Image via Splash News]