Casablanca – A video of Egyptian teenagers harassing two female visitors at the pyramids’ archaeological site went viral on social media, causing widespread outrage.
The 34-second video footage shows foreign female tourists attempting to flee from a herd of boys who were attempting to touch and photograph them against their will.
The two visitors showed on the video in a state of anxiety and extreme tension as a number of local boys approached and harassed them. The group of teenage-looking boys continued to walk after the two young women as they attempted to escape from their harassers.
According to the Egyptian Ministry of Interior, the video was filmed by a tourist guide who was in the Pyramids area at the time of the incident and then shared it in a Whatsapp group for only tourist guides. Later, another tourist guide shared the footage on social media.
Although the two tourists did not file a report about the incident, the Ministry stated that it has initiated an inquiry.
Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Police confirmed on Friday that the 34-second video had been reviewed and that an inquiry into the event had begun.
Asked by the Egyptian news outlet Masrawy to explain why this occurred, an official source at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities claimed that the large number of visitors at the pyramids’ archaeological site that day (the third day of Eid Al-Fitr) made it impossible for the archaeologists in the region to control the incident.
After examining the video and identifying the perpetrators of the incident, Egyptian security forces arrested 13 boys aged between 13-15 years.
According to a statement released on Saturday by the Egyptian Ministry of Interior, the detained teens confessed that they attempted to ask the two visitors to take photographs with them without the intention of harassing them.
